A pioneering project at the Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) in Kandla, Gujarat, is set to produce India’s first green methanol — a marine biofuel produced not from fossil fuels but from Prosopis juliflora, an invasive Mexican-origin shrub that has for decades devastated Kutch’s Banni grasslands. The project, being built by Pune-based Thermax Energy with gasification technology from Vadodara’s Ankur Scientific, will produce five tonnes of methanol per day and is owned by the port authority. It represents the convergence of multiple policy priorities: clean energy, biodiversity restoration, indigenous technology, and the decarbonisation of the maritime sector under International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules.
The significance of this development extends well beyond its technical novelty. It offers a model for addressing environmental challenges and energy transitions simultaneously — using a biodiversity threat to produce a low-carbon fuel that the global shipping industry is being compelled to adopt. For India, which is one of the world’s largest maritime trading nations with a growing ambition to become a green port hub, this project signals both technological capability and policy vision.
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For UPSC aspirants, this intersects science and technology, environmental governance, biodiversity conservation, and India’s climate commitments under the Paris Agreement and IMO decarbonisation targets.
Background and Context
Five Important Key Points
- Prosopis juliflora, known as Gando Baval in Kutch, Vilayati Keekar in North India, and Seemai Karuvelam in Tamil, is ranked among the top 100 invasive species in the world and was first introduced by the British in the 1920s and later by the Gujarat Forest Department in 1961 to combat desertification — with catastrophic unintended consequences for native grassland biodiversity.
- Green methanol produced from biomass feedstocks such as juliflora can reduce a vessel’s CO2 emissions by up to 95% and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional bunker oil, while eliminating sulphur oxides and particulate matter — making it one of the most effective marine decarbonisation fuels currently available.
- The project uses a two-stage process: gasification by Ankur Scientific converts the juliflora biomass into syngas (hydrogen, CO, and CO2), and Thermax then converts the syngas into methanol, with the plant certified to also run on other agricultural residues including bagasse and cotton stalk.
- The Government of India’s policy to convert ports along the western coast into “green ports” provides the demand-side framework for the project, aligning with the IMO’s target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping by 2050.
- At maximum potential, agricultural residue-based green methanol production could displace up to one-third of India’s oil imports, according to estimates from Ankur Scientific — a transformative possibility if scaled across India’s agro-industrial landscape.
Scientific Background
Methanol (CH3OH) is the simplest alcohol and has several properties that make it attractive as a marine fuel: it is liquid at ambient conditions, making it relatively easy to store and transport; it has a high hydrogen-to-carbon ratio, meaning it produces fewer carbon emissions per unit of energy than heavier fossil fuels; and it can be blended with conventional fuels without major engine modifications. Conventional methanol is produced from natural gas or coal gasification — a fossil fuel process. Green methanol, by contrast, uses either renewable electricity (via electrolysis to produce hydrogen, which is then combined with CO2 to produce methanol) or biomass gasification as the source.
The gasification process used by Ankur Scientific sits between combustion and pyrolysis — heating the biomass in the absence of oxygen to produce syngas, which is then cleaned and converted to methanol by Thermax’s Fischer-Tropsch-adjacent process. This is distinct from burning, which produces CO2 directly, and pyrolysis, which produces char and bio-oil.
Environmental Dimensions
The ecological significance of using Prosopis juliflora as a feedstock cannot be overstated. This species was introduced across arid and semi-arid India with good intentions — to provide firewood to rural communities, halt desertification, and restore degraded lands. However, it proved extraordinarily aggressive, spreading rapidly and outcompeting native grasses, particularly in Kutch’s Banni grasslands — one of Asia’s largest tropical grasslands, home to rare pastoral communities and diverse wildlife. The shrub’s deep roots reduce the water table, its allelopathic compounds inhibit the growth of native species, and its thorns injure cattle and humans.
The Kerala State Biodiversity Board’s initiative to restore sacred groves (kavus) — also reported in today’s Hindu — reflects a parallel concern about the decline of ecologically significant and culturally important natural ecosystems. Both initiatives point to a growing recognition in Indian conservation policy that ecosystem restoration requires active, science-based intervention rather than passive protection.
Policy and Governance Framework
The project sits at the intersection of multiple policy frameworks. The Sagarmala programme, which aims to modernise Indian ports and promote port-led development, explicitly includes green port initiatives. The National Hydrogen Mission, launched in 2021 and refined subsequently, provides a policy framework for green hydrogen and related fuels including green methanol. The IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) regulations, which entered into force in 2023, require international shipping companies to progressively reduce the carbon intensity of their vessels, creating regulatory demand for low-carbon marine fuels globally. India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement commit to reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels — a target to which green marine fuels can contribute.
Challenges
The primary challenge for green methanol as a marine fuel is cost competitiveness. Conventional bunker oil remains significantly cheaper per unit of energy, and the shipping industry has historically been resistant to adopting more expensive fuels without regulatory compulsion. The IMO’s progressive tightening of emissions standards provides this compulsion, but enforcement remains uneven. Domestically, the availability of sufficient biomass feedstock at the scale required for commercial shipping fuel production will require significant supply chain development, including collection, transport, and preprocessing of agricultural residues across multiple states.
Way Forward
The Kandla green methanol project must be treated as a proof-of-concept that can be scaled to other ports along India’s western coastline. Government procurement — requiring that a percentage of port operations be fuelled by green methanol or other low-carbon alternatives — can provide the demand signal needed to justify private investment. Research and development funding for next-generation biomass gasification technologies should be prioritised under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency. The invasive species problem — which affects not just Prosopis juliflora but dozens of other alien species across Indian ecosystems — must be addressed through a systematic national invasive species management programme that creates economic value from remediation.
Relevance for UPSC and SSC Examinations
This topic falls under GS-III (Science and Technology, Environment and Ecology) for the UPSC Mains examination, covering topics including environmental pollution and degradation, conservation of biodiversity, and indigenously developed technology. It is also relevant for the Essay paper on clean energy transitions. For SSC examinations, it covers topics under Science and Technology and Environment. Key terms aspirants must remember: Prosopis juliflora, green methanol, gasification, syngas, Fischer-Tropsch process, Deendayal Port Authority, Sagarmala programme, National Hydrogen Mission, IMO Carbon Intensity Indicator, Paris Agreement NDCs, Banni grasslands, invasive species, biomass-to-fuel conversion.