PKT drops plan to use coal to fire boiler

East Kalimantan fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur (PKT) has decided to stop plan to use coal to fire its boilers to replace gas as the study showed the project is infeasible, President Director Hidayat Nyakman was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying.

Hidayat said that the study conducted jointly with Mitsubishi Corp. showed that the project cost and coal price would be too high. ?On that circumstances, PKT prefers to use gas,? he said.

The Company, together with Mitsubishi in 2009 planned to develop facilities to use coal to generate steam for fertilizer production process. The plant, which at that time was estimated to cost US$500 million, was designed to burn 500,000 tonnes of low CV coal annually. (*)