Company Name : Generic Source : The Financial Express

A concerned coal ministry has found out ways to keep up the pace of development in the country and yet not get into crosshairs with the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) for stalling the new coal blocks in the country.

 

The coal ministry is mooting the idea to introduce coal to liquid (CTL) technology to address the environment concern in wake of the ever increasing demand of coal to support the growth of the country.

 

Talking to mediapersopns here on Monday, minister of state for coal Sriprakash Jaiswal said his ministry has asked Coal India (CIL) to prepare a report on implementation of the new CTL technology in the country in order to check the environment threats raised by coal mining.

 

“Since nuclear power plants would require at least 10 more years to start production and the evnironment ministry has raised serious objection on new coal blocks, particularly in the forest...

 

areas, the CTL technology would be appropriate for the country,” he said.

Jaiswal, who had recently visited South Africa along with senior officials to asses the new CTL and coal to gas (CTG) technology, said India could adopt CTL as the Coal to Gas was not feasible for us.

Giving details of a report submitted to the group of ministers (GoM) at the Centre to sanction new coal blocks while maintaining precautions on the environment threat, he said the area of coal bearing area is just 0.05% of the total area of the country, out of which 0.025% is covered by forest.

“After leaving 10% of the total dense forest area in the coal belt, we have suggested that the ministry will do forestation of two and a half times in the other forest areas except for dense and wildlife one, if coal block is being allowed,” he said.

Jaiswal, while expecting a...

growth rate of 9% in coal production in the country during the current fiscal, said “but there is still a gap between the demand and supply which is forcing the sponge iron and cement companies to import coal.” He added that private companies have already imported 71 lakh million tonnes of coal from other countries.

The new CTL technology, already working in South Africa, works by dissolving the coal in a solvent at high temperature and pressure. South Africa has been producing coal-derived fuels since 1955 and has the only commercial coal to liquids industry in operation today. Not only are CTL fuels used in cars and other vehicles, South African energy company Sasol’s CTL fuels also have approval to be utilised in commercial jets. Currently, around 30% of the country's gasoline and diesel needs are produced from indigenous coal.

Jaiswal said there was no scarcity of coal for power plants...