India’s first green methanol plant to turn Kutch’s most invasive weed into marine fuel

A green plant that has been ranked as one of the “top 100 invasive species in the world” and has for decades threatened biodiversity in Kutch’s Banni grasslands, may soon be harnessed for the production of green methanol and fuel for oceangoing ships. 

The Mexican-origin shrub called Prosopis juliflora, known as Gando Baval in the region of Vilayati Keekar in North India and Seemai Karuvelam in Tamil, has crowded out native grasses over thousands of kilometres in Kutch. 

The plant was first introduced by the British in the 1920s to ‘green’ Delhi and by the Gujarat Forest Department in 1961 to halt the encroaching salt desert in the Rann. 

This weed is to become the feedstock for India’s first green methanol production plant. Methanol is used as a fuel in shipping often as a replacement to what is called ‘bunker oil.’ 

Conventional methanol is produced from fossil fuels such as gas or coal gasification. Green methanol uses biomass from agricultural residue as source material as in the case with the juli flora. 

The project, sited at the Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) in Kandla, will produce five tonnes of methanol a day and is being built by Punebased Thermax Energy with gasification technology from Vadodara’s Ankur Scientific, and will be owned by the port authority. 

Both companies are betting that the Government of India’s policy to convert ports along the western coast into “green ports” will create demand for a fuel that the global shipping industry is obliged to adopt under International Maritime Organisation (IMO) rules. 

Greenhouse gas cuts Methanol made from renewable feedstocks can cut a vessel’s CO2 emissions by up to 95 percent and NOx (nitrogen oxides) by up to 80 percent, according to the Methanol Institute, while eliminating sulphur oxides and particulate matter.