L&T to supply world's largest coal gassifier to China
18 Mar 2008
The heavy engineering division of Larsen & Toubro Ltd has won a global bid to build the world's largest coal gassifier and syngas cooler assembly for China's Zhongyuan Coal Chemical Industry Group subsidiary, Hebi Coal and Electricity Co. Ltd.
The value of the contract is €28 million (Rs170 crore).
The complete gasifier assembly and the structure, which is expected to weigh 1740 MT, is the world's largest and heaviest gasifier assembly, with a capacity to handle 3400 tpd of coal. The assembly will be the heart of a methanol plant with a capacity of 600,000 tpa.
The equipment will be manufactured from advanced technology steels at L&T's state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities at Powai and assembled at Hazira, from where it will be shipped to China by sea.
M V Kotwal, member of the board and senior executive vice president said that the manufacture of this gasifier would require transportation of the large fabricated sections, with on-site assembly, testing and erection.
Kotwal said that although such jobs posed enormous challenges, L&T's teams have successfully completed similar work on gasifiers supplied to remote locations in China, where ambient temperatures were as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius.
L&T has supplied several large coal gasifiers to China for various ammonia, methanol, olefin and coal-to-liquid fuel projects.
With rising costs of oil and natural gas, coal gasification provides a promising future to provide a cost effective alternative feedstock for downstream power, fertiliser, petrochemical complexes and coal to liquid fuel plants.