Concerted efforts must for long term sustainability of the coal sector and adopting advanced technologies to reduce green house gases: Sriprakash Jaiswal
Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Coal has called for concerted efforts on need of adopting clean coal technologies including coal gasification and coal liquefaction for long term sustainability of the coal sector as well as reducing the green house gases.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the global summit on coal gasification “Coal Gas 2010’ organized jointly by Ministry of Coal and Mission Energy Foundation (MEF) in New Delhi today, the Minister said that proper environmental management and reclamation of mined-out areas need to be focused upon by the producers of coal for increasing the credibility of coal mining in the society. He said coal sector must adopt best practices and state-of-the-art technologies for improving production, productivity and safety to be competitive in the market.
“To promote clean coal technology research, development and deployment more detailed countermeasures are required to ensure the reliability and economy of commercial-scale utilization of clean coal technologies. There is urgent need for adoption of clean coal technologies including coal washing, coal bed methane, coal mine methane, underground coal gasification and coal liquefaction as these are also important in improving the coal usage in an environment-friendly manner.” Shri Jaiswal said.
On hurdles in taking up new projects and continuing the ongoing projects mainly on account of delays in obtaining necessary clearances, Shri Jaiswal said that the Ministry of Coal is in constant dialogue with the Ministry of Environment & Forests for expediting the clearances and the State Governments are also being pursued for their cooperation in timely acquisition of land for coal projects and to resolve the issue of rehabilitation of project-affected persons in a mutually agreeable manner.
Calling for augmenting domestic production from all the available resources for meeting the projected demand for energy, the Minister pointed out that the coal demand which reached a level of about 550 million tonnes in 2008-09, is envisaged to be over 2 billion tonnes by 2031-32. While the public sector is leading in production, the Government has increased the number of players by allotting the number of captive blocks to augment the production within the existing legislative framework. The growth in production of 5.4% achieved in the past three and half decades would need to increase to over 7% in the coming decade in order to match the growing demand for coal, he added.
Shri Jaiswal said that strengthening the infrastructure for coal movement and coal handling and port infrastructure for facilitating large scale imports are some of the critical areas we need to concentrate on for increasing the production and despatch of coal. He also emphasized a need for large coal consumers like the power sector to adopt technologies for improving the efficiency of energy utilisation from coal in order to reduce emission levels of green house gases.
About 250 global mining experts, engineers, coal equipment manufacturers, representatives from power companies, natural gas companies ,power generation companies, state electricity boards, steel producers and environmentalists are taking part in the two day International Conference on ‘Coal Gas 2010’.
The summit is being organized by Ministry of Coal, Government of India in association with Mission Energy Foundation, a non profit organization with a theme “Roadmap to Technology Commercialization” to discuss ways and means to increase use of coal gasification as main driver for power , steel, cement and fertilizer sector for improving the efficiency of energy utilisation from coal in order to reduce emission levels of green house gases.
Coal Gasification and mining experts from USA, Germany, Australia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Denmark and China are to present key note papers on various subjects including expanding the resource base in coal , new technology and innovations for exploitation of coal, gasification of refineries, clean technologies for high ash Indian coal, underground coal gasification, climate change, improving environment, performance of coal and making it into an affordable reliable energy source.
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