India to build advanced coal-fired power plant

Leading a pioneering effort, Indian scientists aim to built an advanced ultra-super critical coal-fired power plant in the next six years.

Once realised, the plant is expected to put India in a very select group of nations having the technology which would reduce the amount of pollution significantly when compared with the current thermal power plants.

Scientists at the Kalpakkam-based Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) have joined hands with their counterparts at the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) recently in this regard.

"After developing this technology, India will be current in the world in terms of thermal power plant technologies," O P Bhutani, Director (R&D) of BHEL told PTI on the sidelines of the Indian Science Congress here.

He said the Rs 7000-crore project has been taken up at the initiative of the Principal Scientific Advisor R Chidambaram.

Of the total cost, Rs 2,500 crore will be spent on research and development.

"This power plant should be up and running by 2017," Bhutani said.

The IGCAR has the capacity to design such high-temperature boilers, BHEL can manufacture these plant components while NTPC can put up such plants.

The IGCAR expertise of equipment design and development of materials that can operate in very high temperature has been demonstrated while developing the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

The advanced super-critical boilers, to be designed and developed by IGCAR, will be able to operate at a pressure of 350 bar and withstand temperature of 700 degree centigrade.

As India aims to generate at least 4,00,000 MW power by 2030 through coal-fired power plants, it is necessary to develop advanced super-critical technologies that will be less taxing on environment.

The super-critical boilers used by the industry today operate at 250 bar and 600 degree centigrade and are very expensive, he said adding that indigenous development of such technology will help India save on equipment costs.

IGCAR has successfully designed and developed India’s first 500 MW PFBR which is being built at Kalpakkam.

The technology would have substantially higher power plant efficiency with 15-20 per cent reduction in carbon emissions.