Template:Infobox company Assam Petro-Chemicals Limited is a semi-governmental Indian company with major stakes held by Government of Assam, Oil India Limited and Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC).[1] The company was incorporated in 1971 and by 1976 had started production at their small methanol plant located at Namrup along with formaldehyde and a few urea-formaldehyde resins like urea-formaldehyde glue and urea-formaldehyde moulding powder. Post expansion in 1989 and 1998, the company expanded the methanol plant to the capacity of 100TPD (tonnes per day) and formaldehyde plant to 100TPD.[2] The company announced in September 2017 that it would invest Template:INR Convert and expand to produce 500TPD methanol and 200TPD formalin and become the largest producer of methanol in India.[3][4][5] The required feedstock for these plants are natural gas, urea and carbon dioxide. Natural gas, supplied by Oil India Ltd, is used as feedstock for methanol production.[6] Urea and carbon dioxide are supplied by Namrup Fertilizer Plant.[7]
Methanol production
The company is among the top five producers of methanol in India; the other four being Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers & Chemicals, Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers and National Fertilizers Limited.[8]
In October 2018, the company started a pilot project to use methanol as cooking gas in place of conventional liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).[6][9][10] The company was the first in India to offer methanol as an alternative to traditional cooking fuel.[6] At the launch, the canisters, weighing Template:Convert each, were priced at Template:INR each. Eighteen such canisters of methanol were equivalent to one LPG cylinder which is used for domestic cooking in India. The project was launched in support of NITI Aayog under their concept of "methanol economy" to reduce the cost of importing LPG.[6][9][10]
References
- ↑ Assam Petro-chemicals Limited bags Skoch Gold Award. The Sentinel(2018-12-08). Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- ↑ Assam Petro-chemicals Limited – About us. Assam Petro-Chemicals Limited(2015).
- ↑ Assam Petrochemicals Limited to invest Rs 1337 crore to set up second unit. Economic Times(24 September 2017).
- ↑ BJP respects all views: Sonowal, Tripathy, Tejesh. The Telegraph(3 May 2019). Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- ↑ India's first methanol cooking fuel debuts in Assam(5 October 2018).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Assam Petrochemicals Ltd to roll out country's first methanol-based cooking fuel(28 September 2018).
- ↑ The Anatomy of Rural Poverty in Assam{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Mittal Publications(1987). ISBN 8170990092
- ↑ India's Leapfrog to Methanol Economy. NITI Aayog.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pilot project on methanol as cooking gas launched at Assam Petrochemicals Limited (APL)(6 October 2018).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Launch of Methanol Cooking Fuel Program of India. Government of India(5 October 2018).