AsiaNet-Pakistan Premier Editorial Content and Press Release Distribution Service
Lahore, June 07, 2012 (PPI-OT): Coal gasification offers one of the most versatile and clean ways to convert coal into electricity, hydrogen and other valuable energy products,” said experts while speaking at Workshop jointly organized by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) on Coal Gasification and its Benefits to the Industry on Thursday.
The LCCI Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher was the Chief Guest while General Manager SMEDA Alamghir Chaudhry, Engineer S A Khalid, Engineer Zahid Malik, Engineer Khalid Umer and Mohammad Shakeel were prominent among the speakers.
In his opening remarks, the LCCI Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher said that there is no second opinion about it that the technology is the key to success and only those countries would be able to make their presence felt at International level who would adopt modern technologies.
He said that as the coal gasification is the future therefore Pakistani research institutes should focus on giving awareness to Pakistani entrepreneurs about this technology in vogue in the developed world.
The LCCI senior Vice President said that it was very unfortunate that Pakistani research institutes have failed to play their role properly this is one of reasons of economic meltdown being faced by the country.
The LCCI Senior Vice President said that Pakistan is currently experiencing its worst ever energy crisis. The impact of these crises is getting so critical that our industry is getting on the verge of complete closure. The irony of the fact is that three decades ago, electricity was generated from hydel and non hydel resources with a proportion of 70:30.
“Now the situation has totally reversed. It means that the country is relying too much on gas, oil and other sources to generate electricity. It has resulted in costlier electricity which has wiped out competitive edge in international market and also pushed us to that stage where our future has become skeptical.”
Keeping in view the shortage of natural gas and high prices of oil, we are bound to explore alternative ways of producing energy. Though some experts suggest going for solar and wind energy but the installation cost of such projects are way too high, which makes it unviable in our case.
Luckily, having abundant reserves of coal, which will not cost us dearly, we can utilize it for energy production. He said that according to reports 80,000 megawatts of electricity is being produced through underground coal gasification in different countries of the world including South Africa, Australia, China, Russia, Poland, Czech and Uzbekistan. But sadly, the government did not allocate funds in the federal budget 2012-13 for this project.
There was a consensus among the other speakers that Coal Gasification provides significant economic and environmental benefits. They said that rather than burning coal directly, gasification breaks down coal into its basic chemical constituents using high temperature and pressure. Because of this, carbon dioxide can be captured from a gas stream far more easily than from the smokestacks of a conventional coal plant.
“Rather than burning coal directly, coal gasification reacts coal with steam and controlled amounts of air or oxygen under high temperatures and pressures to produce a gaseous mixture, typically hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
These hot, coal gases exiting the gasifier are used to power a gas turbine. Hot exhaust from the gas turbine is then fed to a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The steam from the HRSG is then fed to a conventional steam turbine, producing a second source of power.”
Coal gasification can not only used for power generation but also it can become source of synthetic oil, coal chemicals, natural gas substitution. Also it can be used for development of the fuel cell. Thus coal gasification become member of clean coal technology with other advantages.
Many experts predicted that coal gasification will be at the heart of clean coal technology and can pave the way for coal for future generations.
For more information, contact:
Shahid Khalil
Information Department
Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)
11-Shahrah-e-Aiwan-e-Tijarat,
Lahore -54000, Pakistan
Tel: +9242 111 222 499
Fax: +92 42 636 8854