Cabinet okays subsidy for urea produced via coal gasification

Context

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs recently approved subsidy for urea to be produced by state-run Talcher Fertilizers (TFL) at its soon-to-be-commissioned Odisha facility.

About

• The state-run Talcher Fertilizers (TFL) will be only plant to produce the nitrogenous soil nutrient through coal gasification route.
• Talcher Fertilizers (TFL) was incorporated on 13 November 2015.
• It is a joint venture company of four PSUs namely
  • Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF)
  • GAIL (India) (GAIL)
  • Coal India (CIL)
  • Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCIL)
• The Centre pays subsidy on urea to fertiliser manufacturers on the basis of cost of production at each plant and the units are required to sell the fertiliser at the government-set maximum retail price (MRP).

Coal gasification

• Coal gasification plants are strategically important as coal prices are non-volatile and coal is abundantly available in the country.
• India still has large coal reserves but its known gas reserves are limited.
• As compared to directly coal-fired processes, the gasification process adopted in Talcher unit is a clean coal technology giving negligible SOx, NOx and free particulate emissions.