Topics Covered: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Supplying washed coal
Context:
The government had recently amended the Environment Protection Act to drop the mandatory washing of coal supplied to thermal power plants.
This notification undid the government’s 2016 order, which made coal washing mandatory for supply to all thermal units more than 500 km from the mine as part of its climate-change commitments.
What’s the issue?
Few experts had opposed this move. They said, the notification would “undo whatever limited progress” was made so far in reducing pollution load at coal-based power stations.
However, the government defended its move and has questioned those opposing, “How is coal not dirty within 500 km, and how does it become dirty after 500 km?”
What was the rationale behind the mandatory washing requirement?
From January 2014 onwards, the Environment Ministry had been working towards “progressive reduction” of distance that unwashed coal would travel, keeping in view that ultimately all coals, irrespective of distance from supplying mines, will have to be washed and comply with less than 34 per cent ash limit.
- This was done in line with the country’s stand in climate change negotiations – not to reduce coal consumption and rather focus on emission control.
- Washing coal increases the efficiency and quality of the dry fuel.
- In theory, a process like coal washing was supposed to be good for everyone; thermal power plants would have fewer operational problems due to poor coal quality.
- The combustion of washed coal would be better from an emissions and local air pollution perspective, and the unnecessary transport of large amounts of ash and non-combustible material would be minimized.
This was ultimately aimed at the protection of the environment.
Why the present government decided to do away with this?
- Agreeing that coal washing does not help reduce emissions, the power ministry has said that “coal rejects from washery find their way into the market for use by industries and create pollution”.
- It said washing of coal is unable to meet its intended objective as “it merely localises the pollution around coal mines which otherwise would have been distributed over larger areas”.
- It has also pointed out that the process of coal washing is cumbersome and costly. It also leads to reduction in the calorific value of the coal as well.
Way ahead:
The power ministry has instead batted for pollution control technologies at power generation units.
- Under the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board, plants with close to 50 gigawatt of thermal power capacity need to install emission control systems.
- It would also be beneficial to use raw coal instead of washed coal.
- With the use of supercritical technology in power plants, technological improvement to arrest emissions, unwashed coal can be used efficiently and economically using washed coal which makes power generation costlier.
Sources: the Hindu.
