Centre hopeful of greener coal technology in 2 yrs

The Union coal ministry hopes that the country’s coal-fired power plants would adopt environment-friendly technologies in the next two years.

The ministry is currently mulling over two clean coal technologies — coal to liquid and underground coal gasification — being used in South Africa.

Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had visited the African nation last month with senior government and Coal India Limited (CIL) officials in this regard.

“The ministry has asked CIL to prepare a detailed proposal about the speedy adoption of coal to liquid technology,” Jaiswal told newspersons here this evening.

He said, coal to liquid technology could be adopted without much capital investment in existing plants, while underground coal gasification technology was still in its preliminary stage and was yet to give equally positive results.

The minister said with rising industrialisation and economic growth in the country, the demand for energy was bound to increase and coal being the primary source of energy is required to be harnessed at a greater pace.

“Our ministry shares the concern of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) about the need to conserve our ecology, since greater use of coal for energy would definitely put pressure on the environment,” he added.

He further said, nuclear energy and thorium era are still eight to 10 years and 25 years away for India and till then coal demand would continue to rise.

He said, while coal production had posted seven to eight per cent growth last year, the current financial year’s growth could not be ascertained due to MoEF’s objections in clearing coal blocks.

Jaiswal said CIL was exploring coal properties abroad to cater its rising needs, while Mozambique had already allocated two coal blocks and promised for more such allocations in due course.

The Centre had put coal import under open general license (OGL) allowing private and public companies to import coal. “Coal demand is high in the sponge iron, cement and power sectors. The private sector is importing about 71 million tonnes of coal, while National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is also importing some coal.”

Jaiswal said the coal ministry had allocated two coal blocks to Uttar Pradesh, however, the government was yet to make any headway. “I reiterate that coal supply would not pose any constraint to Uttar Pradesh’s thermal power production.”