KOLKATA | Nov 02, 2017: Coal India would be taking up clean coal technologies like coal to liquid, coal to poly-chemicals and coal to methanol in a big way said coal secretary Susheel Kumar.
Gopal Singh, acting chairman at Coal India said, “The Indian energy sector is on the cusp of transformation and coal based power generation shall go up.”
They were addressing employees at the 43rd Coal India Foundation Day in Kolkata on Wednesday.
“At present 73% of the power generation of the country is coal based and large planned new coal based thermal capacity is likely to put pressure on coal resources,” Singh said.
“Coal based power generation capacity of 125 GW in 2012 is likely to touch 330-441 GW by 2040. The demand for these plants is likely to be first met by domestic coal, which will require quick exploitation of our reserves. All the above calls for fuller coal resource assessment, optimum mining and efficient use,” he said.
According to a statement made by Coal India the share of coal in India’s commercial primary energy supply was 55% in 2015-16 and is expected to remain high at 48-54% in 2040. Sustained levels of high domestic production would greatly advance India’s energy security. Coal gasification technology and methanol economy also hold value for India to commercially tap our coal resources.
Singh said that the company is pushing hard to meet the 600 million tonne production target for 2017-18 and the target of 1 billion tonne production mark for 2019-20.
Speaking on the occasion, Susheel Kumar said that coal ministry has fixed four priorities for Coal India -- quality, safety, environmental management and clean coal technologies.
“Slippage between promised quality and delivered quality has to go. Safety of miners is non-negotiable and environmental norms have to be followed diligently,” he said.
“CIL has to do everything possible to reduce specific coal consumption – that is the amount of coal burned to produce one unit of power – so that there is less burning of coal and less carbon emission,” he said.
Kumar said Coal India should generate greater profits by better efficiency and larger volumes. Construction of washeries are to be accorded a high priority.
(Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)