Tata Motors and Japan's NEDO develop dual-fuel power plant

Tata Motors, jointly with New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) of Japan, has developed an environment-friendly dual-fuel power generation facility at the Tata Motors plant at Pune.

Tata Motors and NEDO have jointly worked on the project for two years and the plant can now be operated using diesel natural gas or light diesel oil.

The project was undertaken under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) jointly signed between the governments of India and Japan, NEDO and Tata Motors.

The project is designed to demonstrate technology that reduces oil consumption and reduces environmentally harmful gas emissions including nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide and carbon dioxide through the conversion of diesel-fueled engines at the plant to dual-fuel operating engines that can use natural gas.

The plant uses two 2.5 MW diesel electric power generators that have been converted into dual-fuel generators, which uses natural gas as the main fuel and diesel as the pilot fuel.

In India, demand for power has rapidly increased due to its booming economy, but power source development has not been able to meet the growing demand, which has resulted in a serious power shortage situation. At the same time, oil-fueled power facilities have been forced to shut down operations due to rising costs caused by fuel price increases.