BEP considers four coal upgrading technologies for Wahau project
To start Wahau coal production in 2013
Thursday, November 18 2010 - 02:00 AM WIB
BEP?s president director Jeffrey Mulyono told Petromindo that the Wahau mine had coal reserves of about 5.6 billion tons, mostly comprising of low-rank coal with calorific value of 3,500 kcal/kg (AR) and total moisture of 45-46 percent.
With the use of upgrading technology, coal quality could be upgraded to 5,600 kcal/kg and moisture of 12 percent, he said.
Jeffrey said that there were at least 14 types of upgrading technologies which could be used to increase the quality of low-rank coals. ?But we will focus only on four of them,? he said.
The four technologies are upgraded the brown coal (UBC) processing technology of Japanese firm Kobelco, binderless coal briquetting (BCB) technology of Australian firm White Energy, coal upgrading-briquetting (CUB) technology of Australian firm Ferrostaal and US firm GTL Energy.
BEP has seven concessions in the Wahau area, which are expected to begin production in 2013. The production is expected to reach 2 million tons in the first year, 8 million tons in the second year, 16 million tons in the third year. After that the production can be increased to 200 million tons a year, Jeffrey said.
He said that BEP was currently preparing the tender for the construction of supporting infrastructure facilities such as road, port and crushing plant. ?Hopefully, the tender can be launched next year,? he added.
Jeffrey said that about 40 percent of the total production would go to upgrading facilities before being marketed, while the other 60 percent would be marketed in their original form.
The company is also planning to initial public offering (IPO) after entering construction phase in 2012 or initial production in 2013, Jeffrey added. (denny)