The question that started everything
I have spent 33 years pursuing the answer to that question. And the answer is not complicated. It is not a shortage of resources. It is not a lack of demand. It is not even a lack of technology – because the technology exists. I have built it. My team has built it. It has been running in Indian factories for decades.
Section 01 — Vision
The question that started everything
We have never built an academic discipline around it. We have never told the story of what coal can become when it is gasified instead of burned.
This is not about championing gasifiers. Nor about promoting a company. This is about telling a story that India has always needed to hear – that our energy independence is not a dream. It is an engineering decision we have not yet made. But should.
My vision for India
Not partially independent, not dependent on imports for 80% of our energy, as we are today. Genuinely, structurally, strategically independent.
The core conviction
The only thing standing between India and energy independence is the technology to convert coal into clean fuel – and the national will to deploy it at scale.
The technology exists. I have spent my career building it. What remains is the will. My work – and this platform – is dedicated to building that will.
Indigenous sustainability
We cannot achieve sustainability by importing it
I do not use the term “ESG” or “green energy” to describe what I do. These are imported frameworks, part of a discourse designed for and favouring Western economies that do not have India’s resource profile or development imperatives.
What I advocate is Indigenous Sustainability – the idea that India’s path to environmental responsibility must be built on India’s own resources, India’s own technology, and on India’s own timeline. We cannot achieve sustainability by importing it. We must engineer it.
Coal gasification is Indigenous Sustainability in practice. We take India’s most abundant resource, apply Indian-designed technology, produce clean fuel for Indian industry, and capture the carbon emissions as an input for Indian agriculture (urea).
Every element of the cycle is domestic. Every element is sustainable. And every element is already operational.
Dr. Roger Kumar
Section 02 — Journey
The Journey
From a mechanical engineering classroom to three decades of building India’s gasification infrastructure.
I graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra. Like every engineer, I was trained to solve problems. But the problem that captured my imagination was not a small one. It was the largest problem India faced – and still faces: energy dependence.
I could see the paradox clearly. India had coal in abundance. India needed energy in abundance. Yet India was buying energy from abroad while sitting on the elemental equivalent of what it was buying. The gap between what we had and what we used was not a resource gap. It was a technology gap.
I decided to close that gap.
In January 1993, I founded CASE Group. The name stood for something simple: engineering for a safer, cleaner tomorrow. The mission was simple to solutions that aim for a cleaner and economically stronger India.
We started with cooling towers and Scale-Ban, A non chemical water treatement equipment pioneered the technology becoming the leaders in India and more. A clear first win in buiding cleaner and "green-first" industrial solutions.
Building the portfolio
Over three decades, we systematically built India’s most comprehensive gasification technology portfolio – one generation at a time:
Our first gasifier. A fixed-bed, updraft system that produces hot producer gas at 500 degrees C. No tar generation. Zero Liquid Discharge. Capable of 100% replacement of furnace oil and natural gas in steel reheating applications. This is still the only gasifier in India that can make that claim.
Patented technology offering three variants – hot clean, cold clean, and ultra-clean cold gas. The lowest CAPEX and OPEX of any gasification variant globally. Tar separated from water and recoverable as a commercial by-product. Fully PLC-controlled. Installed at the Insulators and Electricals Company, Bhopal.
A technology partnership with KEDA, China – pioneers with 100+ installations globally. Capacities of 20,000-60,000 Nm3/hr per module. Uses coal fines that other gasifiers cannot process. Complete decomposition of tars, phenols, and cyanides at combustion temperatures above 1000 degrees C.
Our most advanced system. Designed specifically for India’s high-ash, low-ash-fusion-temperature coals – the coal types that dominate India’s reserves and that no other gasification technology can handle effectively. Single-cell capacity up to 100,000 Nm3/hr. Can operate on 100% oxygen. The lowest operational cost of all gasification technologies.
From day one, I was determined that CASE would not be an owner-driven workshop. I wanted to build a professionally managed technology corporation – with structured engineering, R&D, quality control, and project management departments. An organization that operates with the discipline of a large corporate group while maintaining the agility of a specialist firm.
That philosophy has paid off. We have employees with 30+ years of tenure. We have had zero accidents in 20 years. We are debt-free and cash-rich. And we have built a 33-year track record of end-to-end project delivery – design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning, and performance guarantee – all under one roof.
Over time, my role evolved from engineer to evangelist. I realized that building the technology was necessary but not sufficient. If India was to achieve energy independence through coal gasification, the conversation had to move beyond the factory floor and into the halls of policy, academia, and public discourse.
I began with industry forums, and amplified the cause by contributing to publications, and deep-engaging with policymakers. I was invited as a distinguished speaker at the Leadership Excellence Summit 2025 organised by Navbharat Times and was recognised by AsiaOne as World’s Greatest Sustainable Energy Transformation Leader 2026. These I do not see as personal accolades, but as signals that the message is now beginning to get across, to be heard.
But the work is far from done. The gap between what is possible and what is being done remains enormous. My journey – and this platform – is dedicated to closing that gap.
Section 03 — Impact
CASE Group is the only Indian company offering all four major coal gasification technologies under a single turnkey model. No competitor in India matches this breadth:
| Technology | Key Achievement |
|---|---|
| Hot Fixed Bed (MA Series) | 100% replacement of furnace oil/gas in steel reheating |
| Pyrolysis Clean Gas (C Series) | Lowest CAPEX/OPEX globally; tar recoverable as by-product |
| CFBC (with KEDA) | Uses coal fines; complete tar/phenol decomposition |
| Entrained Flow (Gen 4) | Designed for India’s high-ash coals; 100% oxygen capable |
CASE gasification plants are operating across India’s steel, chemicals, and process industries. Named installations include:
Beyond gasification, CASE Cooling Towers have been installed across virtually every industrial sector in India – from steel foundries and fertilizer plants to hospitals and commercial complexes. There is barely an industry in India where CASE equipment is not running.
Every CASE gasification plant contributes to:
If India were to adopt coal gasification at scale by replacing even 30% of industrial furnace oil and natural gas with gasified coal, the impact would be transformative:
This is not theoretical. The technology is built. The plants are running. The numbers are proven. What is needed is scale – and that requires national policy, academic focus, and industrial will.
Section 04 — Media
(featured in Transforming Industry, Education and Sustainability for a Better Future)
Stay updated with the latest from CASE Group
Accreditations, professional fellowships, and institutional leadership roles held by Dr. Roger Kumar.
Section 05 — Industry & Public Engagement
A voice on India’s energy future. Available for the platforms that shape it.
Dr. Roger Kumar delivers authoritative, data-driven keynotes and panel contributions backed by 33 years of indigenous engineering expertise across the following core themes:
The core presentation. Why India imports 80% of its energy, what coal gasification is, how it works, and why it is the only viable path to energy independence. Backed by 33 years of operational data and four generations of indigenous technology.
Why imported sustainability frameworks do not serve India’s development imperatives. How India can build an environmental responsibility model on its own resources, its own technology, and its own timeline. The case for coal gasification as Indigenous Sustainability in practice.
How coal gasification enables carbon capture, how captured CO2 combined with green hydrogen produces urea, and why this creates a circular carbon economy that is both environmentally responsible and commercially viable. The path to carbon neutrality by 2070.
Green hydrogen is the destination. But at one-third the cost, hydrogen from coal gasification is the bridge. This talk outlines how India can build a hydrogen economy now – using existing technology and domestic resources – while green hydrogen infrastructure matures.
The story of CASE Group – from a single-product startup to India’s only comprehensive gasification technology company. Lessons in building indigenous engineering capability, maintaining professional management discipline, and sustaining innovation across decades.
Available for high-level speaking and panel engagements across leading national and global forums:
Section 06 — Contact
For speaking invitations, media enquiries, and policy dialogues.
For CASE Group business or project enquiries, please visit www.casepl.com.
