Pranbihanga Borpuzari Coal prices will go up by Rs 300-400 per tonne, as the government has made it mandatory for all coal produced in the country to be washed by the producers. The higher price would mean more input costs for thermal power Companies and the railways. This is expected to add to the price of electricity. This follows the government's decision to make it mandatory for all coal produced in the country to be washed, will now mean spending about Rs 1,500 crore to wash coal and about Rs 4,000-6,000 crore to set up such washeries. According to the government, the benefits of washing coal are many. It will result in reduction of emissions- owing to reduced ash content in coal, reduction in the size of the coal handling plant at the power station end with reduction in the size of ash disposal units and smaller ash ponds. Reduction in ash will also result in less wear and tear of machinery, and the railways will carry thermal coal with less ash, resulting in increased freight carrying capacity. However, the above advantages have several shortcomings. Even the sheer amount of money involved can make the proposition a costly affair. The present cost of such beneficiation works out to Rs 15 crore per million tonne of raw coal, with a yield of around 80% of clean and 20% rejected coal. The country's largest coal producer, Coal India Ltd (CIL), and its subsidiaries plan to wash about 100 mt of coal, which will translate to a cost of about Rs 1,500 crore. The investment requirement for setting up a washery will vary from Rs 400 to Rs 600 per tonne of annual capacity. It will mean Rs 4,000-6,000 crore to set up a coal washery. This means the cost of producing washed coal increases substantially and can translate into higher cost of coal for thermal power plants of the country. CIL chairman Partha S Bhattarcharya said that the company will do the necessary investment out of its surplus. "It will be a good investment and a win-win proposition for all', Bhattarcharya said. He added that the company currently has 7-8 washeries and plans to set up 28 coal washeries in the next 2-3 years. However, an official at the Indraprastha Power Generation Co Ltd (IPGCL) said CIL is already providing washed coal at a premium of Rs 300-400 per tonne as compared to raw coal. According to the Gazette of India notification, from June 2001, all power plants situated 1,000 km or more from the mining source and those in urban, sensitive and critically polluted areas (excluding pit-head plants, were to use only washed coal. That meant most power plants in cities like Delhi had to use washed coal to generate power. The government's present move brings all power plants into the ambit of using wash coal, which is expected to drive up the cost of producing electricity for units like the NTPC, which till now could use raw coal. Environmentalist doubt the efficacy of washing coal and claim that the concept of washing does not result in any real benefits for the environment. The International Energy Agency, a US-based energy policy adviser, estimates that Indian power plants can raise their thermal efficiency by as much as 10% by using washed coal. Currently Indian coal has around 40% ash content which will reduce to 34% after washing. As there will be around 20% rejected material containing about 20% carbon content, an extra 10% mining capacity would be required to supply the equivalent amount of thermal energy as is available from unwashed coal. Therefore, the 10% additional power generated is almost negated by the additional mining, which needs to be added. "We had to handle ash in the power plants before and now the ash needs to handled at the mines itself. It is just shifting the problem from one area to another,' said an official from the power department of the Delhi government. The question now arises as to the availability of space at the mines to handle 20 million tonnes of rejects being generated out of the washing process. Land acquisition for the purpose can prove to be a tricky issue. Availability of water to handle such large washing is again a matter of concern. "States like Jharkhand has deficient water for even drinking purpose,' said KPMG director Nabin Ballodia. Even the environmental benefits of the case are a suspect. There is no disposal ground for these rejects in most of the major coalfields, making it virtually impossible to dispose it off. The rejects cannot be dumped back into the mine as they have appreciable carbon content and will cause fire due to spontaneous combustion. Bhattarcharya said CIL will use the rejects for land filling after ensuring there is no heat value content in the ash and the company will ensure that technology is used to recycle the water. He also proposed to generate power from the rejects. However, the proposed FBC route for power generation from ash has not advanced to a stage where large-scale power can be generated which can be efficiently utilised for local use. Currently the FBC boilers operating in the country will not be able to handle the large quantity of the rejects being generated from washing. For most of the power plants which would now have to use washed coal, it will not result in significant gains. Most of these plants already have existing facilities in place so the reduction in ash content will be insignificant to them. According to Teri, railways will not benefit from reduction in weight of coal to be transported because of ash being washed because while the ash reduction due to washing will be 6%, there will be at least an addition of 3% moisture in washed coal resulting in only 3% reduction in overall volume / weight. The capacity enhancement to the railways will, therefore, be insignificant. On the benefits to a power station because of less wear and tear of machinery, there has been no quantifiable figure on such benefits. Only 15% of the coal in India is washed as compared to the global average of 45%. However, globally after coal is washed, the ash content is only about 9% while in India it continues to be at 34%, thereby raising a question on the very need to wash the it.