Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Asia’s first cannisters based and India’s first “Methanol Cooking Fuel Programme” was inaugurated by Dr V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog and Chairman, Methanol Apex Committee, on the Assam Petro-chemicals campus at Namrup, Assam, on October 5, 2018, making it a historic day for India. Assam Petro-chemicals is a state-owned company.
The 500 households inside the Assam Petro Complex will be the first pilot project scaling it to 40,000 households in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Goa and Karnataka. The project is a natural extension of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of reducing import of crude and an effort to provide clean, import substitute, cost effective and pollution free cooking medium. Assam Petrochemicals Limited has been manufacturing methanol for the last 30 years and is in the process of upgrading their 100 TPD methanol plant to 600 TPD by December 2019, according to a PIB release.
The safe handling cannister based cooking stoves are from Swedish Technology and through a Technology transfer a largescale cooking stove manufacturing plant will come up in India in the next 18 months producing 10 lakh Cookstoves and 1 Crore Cannisters per year. This technology is very unique, it handles methanol extremely safely, and does not need regulator or any piping system.
The cooking medium can directly substitute LPG, Kerosene, Wood, Charcoal and any other fuel for cooking. The gaseous form, Methanol – DME, can be blended in 20% ratio with LPG. LPG-DME blending programme is expected to kickstart in the country by next year.
The 1.2 litre cannisters can last for full five hours on twin burners and 8 such Cannisters as rack can last for one month for a family of three.