ACB India Limited Taking Care Of India's Environmental Issues From Coal Beneficiation To Power Production From Coal Reject

Online, May 16, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Coal produced in India is generally of a low grade quality, mostly Grade E or F. But with a rise in demand for power in the country and high dependency on coal as source of energy, the need for high quality coal has become imperative. Hence, there has been a rush for coal washing to improve the calorific value of coal. The pioneer in this industry is ACB (India) Ltd., which has around 15 washeries across the country, with the biggest washery in India in "Dipka". It is also the largest in washing capacity in the country.

Washing however lead to generation of 20-25% rejects coal. Disposal of reject coal, in itself is a problem. It consumes space, creates environmental damage. This adds to the woes of the washing company like ACB since the ultimate user of coal does not lift the reject since carrying the same is costly and economically and environmentally unviable. .

Taking into consideration all these problems ACB (India) Ltd. has set up a revolutionary 30 MW power plant based on reject coal in 2007 and is in the process of commissioning 270 MW power plant based on blend of reject coal and raw coal in 2011, which will help in disposal of reject coal in an environment-friendly manner. ACB India has signed an agreement with GSECL (Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited) as per which, reject coal generated from quantity of Grade F raw coal supplied to GSECL will be bought back by ACB India for use in the blended coal reject power plant. The power produced at ACB India's 270 MW blended coal reject power plant will, then be supplied to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL). This is a win-win situation for ACB India, because neither the coal rejects gets wasted, nor the environment is damaged with rejects being dumped in the open.

ACB India used coal reject in an innovative way when other coal washery companies were looking for ways to dispose of the coal reject. By entering an agreement for buying back coal rejects from their clients and converting it into power for GUVNL, ACB India has reaped benefits not only for itself but for its clients too. GSECL has saved huge amounts in transportation cost, since they signed an agreement with ACB India with regards to the buy back of reject coal; GSECL now only has to transport the washed coal, which is around 80% of the total coal lifted and the rest stays back as coal reject. For GUVNL, the benefits are in the form of power at low rates which is at Rs. 2.24 per unit on everlasting basis. Also, with this arrangement ACB India has next to nil coal reject storage costs, which is beneficial for them, moreover, ACB buys reject coal at approximately Rs 120/ tonne from GSECL and sells power at a rate of Rs. 2.24 per unit to GUVNL. Lastly, by coming up with the idea of coal reject power, ACB India is taking care of all the environmental concerns which were attached to disposing off reject coal or storing them.