Construction starts in Indonesia for MicroCoal?s commercial coal upgrading facility
Tuesday, September 17 2013 - 01:09 AM WIB
Canadian firm MicroCoal? Technologies Inc. announced on Monday that the initial project payment has been made to PT Citicon Energy (CEN) for the construction of the first MTI plant in Indonesia, and site-work construction commences of the first commercial MicroCoal? facility installation at the PT Wijaya Tri Utama power plant in Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan.
CEN is responsible for all aspects of engineering, construction and project management.
The MicroCoal? facility has been designed and engineered to upgrade the calorific value of approximately 190,000 tons per year of low-rank coal (approximately 8,000 Btu/lb) to a higher calorific coal (approximately 9,000 Btu/lb) by removing only 10 percent of the total moisture. Further, MicroCoal? has concluded that its technology has another significant element, it can substantially increase the calorific content of this specific low-rank Indonesian coal above 11,000 Btu/lb by reducing the moisture content.
According to the company the facility will be the first commercial installation in the world.
The company is focused on commercializing its unique, clean-coal upgrading technology known as MicroCoal?; a low-cost, patented microwave technology that reduces moisture in coal resulting in an upgraded energy content of coal.
The company claims that this process provides significant financial benefits to coal-fired electrical generating utilities such as: large cost savings from switching to low-rank coal, substantial increases in boiler efficiencies and heat output, improved ash efficiencies and reductions in scrubber costs. Important environmental benefits including reductions in most greenhouse gases (SOx up to 70%, NOx up to 50%, CO2 up to 17%) and mercury are also key primary benefits from implementation of this technology.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak