Is it a myth or Reality to produce 11,250 MW electricity from Domestic or indigenous coal in
Bangladesh? In a news caption ‘Bangladesh eyes 2,000 MW more by 2018’ published on
‘The Daily Star’ March 07, 2015 has shown the 2030: The Power Plans. The Power Plans
include about 11,250 MW electricity generations from Domestic Coal. Is it possible or not?
The answer would come next. Now I want to discuss about some related aspects of energy
situation and domestic coal in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is plagued with energy crisis. In respect of energy consumption, the nation ranks
the third lowest in Asia. The per capita energy consumption is 321 Kilowatt per hour.
Bangladesh needs energy for its survival and/or sustainable development. All the five basic
needs of mankind depend on energy security. The major source of commercial energy
production in the country is the natural gas and it is depleting very fast. Sector experts opine
that there will not be enough natural gas to ensure the existing power generation by the end of
next decade. It is expected that coal may be the main source of energy generation in
Bangladesh in near future. As the natural gas is depleting very fast, the alternative source of
energy be the coal.
Bangladesh till now has five coal fields in the country having about 3 billion tons of coal. It is
to mention here that the proved reserves of coal deposits in Jamalganj Coal Field range from
1,053 to 1,563 million metric tons (MMT), in Barapukuria Coal Field of 389 MMT, in
Phulbari Coal Field of 572 MMT, Khalaspir Coal Field of 142 MMT in an area of 2.52
square kilometres with probable deposit of 685 MMT and the Dighipara Coal Field by four
holes drilled in an area of 1.25 square kilometres may have deposit of about 105 MMT with
the expectation of having probable coal deposits of 600 MMT. Among the five coal fields,
only the Barapukuria Coal Field is under operation using the conventional “Underground
Long Wall Mining” method and starting a feasibility study for extension of existing
underground mining operation of Barapukuria coal mine towards the southern and the
northern side of the basin without interruption of the present production. Bangladesh has
gathered experience on coal mining operations. The Government has taken revolutionary
steps for the extraction of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) gas from Jamalganj coal if there is any.
The Phulbari Coal Field in Dinajpur District is in shallow depth and is waiting for open pit
extraction. The Dighipara coal filed in Dinajpur District is yet to be explored fully but that
and another coal field in Khalaspir area is in Rangpur District stands at medium depth.
To produce 11,250 MW electricity from Domestic or indigenous coal, we have to calculate
roughly how much coal would be extracted per year.
We need 11,250 MW of Power. P=11,250 MW. As coal is used for electricity generation P
comes from heat energy.
P=11,250 x 1000000W= 11,250 x 1000000 Joules/sec= 2688817.5 kcal/sec (P=Q/t) [1 Jule =
0.000239006 Kilo calories].
To generate this amount of heat energy we are to be using Thermal Power Plants. Let the
efficiency of a typical supercritical unit has efficiency of 42%. A typical supercritical unit
operating at 242 bar main steam pressure with 565°C temperature and 593°C reheat steam
temperature yields a power plant efficiency of 42%. Such supercritical (SC) boiler is
available in Japan and Europe up to 1000 MW. A typical ultra supercritical (USC) unit, a
later version, working at pressure 300 bar with 600°C/600°C steam can give net efficiency of
46%. (K. M. Mahbubur Rahman; Senior Mechanical Engineer- “Energy Saving By
Improving Efficiency — Review on Rampal & Barapukuria Coal Based Power Plants”).
Actual Q=2688817.5/0.42= 6401946.43 kcal. Therefore we need to produce 6401946.43 kcal
energy per second.
The amount of coal required depends upon the type of coal (calorific value of the burned
coal) used. Let’s assume the plant would use the indigenous coal having calorific value of
6,072 Kcal/Kg (Approx).
Amount of coal we need per second=6401946.43 Kcal/6,072 Kcal/Kg= 1,054.34 Kg.
For a load of 11,250 MW for 1 year we need 1,054.34 x 365 x 24 x 3600/ (1,000,000×1000)
= 33.25 MMT/year.
Is it possible to produce coal 33.25 MMT/year? How we can produce coal 33.25 MMT/year
where our country is now producing only 1 MMT/year from Barapukuria underground coal
mine. No further mine has been developed till now. To implement this power plan we need
about 33 mine like Barapukuria coal mine producing 1 MMT/year of coal. The protagonists
in Bangladesh are always shouted for not to extract coal against various issues. So that
production of 11,250 MW electricity from Domestic or indigenous coal seems to be a myth.
But I think it is a paradox. It would be possible if the energy security be the first issue which
will secure the food security and others. I don’t know what is the calculation for
implementing the power plan of producing 11,250 MW electricity from Domestic or
indigenous coal. But I assumed that
1. The Khasashpir Coal Mine Project has been targeted to extract 4 MMT coal per year.
2. The Dighipara Coal Mine Project would have been targeted to extract 4 MMT coal
per year.
3. The Phulbari Coal Project has been targeted to extract 15 MMT per year.
4. If the Barapukuria coal and Jamalganj CBM projects produce 10 MMT coal or
equivalent per year.
Then Bangladesh would be able to produce 11,250 MW electricity from Domestic or
indigenous coal.
If no open pit mine be executed in Bangladesh then only 18 MMT coal or equivalent per year
would come from our domestic coal field which will produce 6,090 MW of electricity. And
the perspective plane would be a myth.
But the perspective power plan would be the reality if Bangladesh use the deadly product of
coal named ‘coal ash or flyash’. The ash content of Barapukuria coal is about 12.40%.
According to the ‘Study of Environmental Impacts of the Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant
of Bangladesh’ by Masud, Shakib and Rokonuzzaman of RUET, Bangladesh, published on
“Global Journal of Researches in Engineering” shows that the Barapukuria Coal fired
Thermal Power Plant consumes 0.876 MMT of coal per year where annual ash generation is
0.08 MMT. The ash generation of Barapukuria Coal fired Thermal Power Plant is about 10%
of consumed coal. The report also shown the fly ash analysis obtained from Barapukuria
Power Plant in oxide form. The TiO2 concentration is 3.2 percent. That is the Barapukuria
Coal fired Thermal Power Plant produces about 2560 tons of TiO2 per annum. Titanium
minerals are valuable heavy mineral. The fly ash analysis of Barapukuria Coal fired Thermal
Power Plant also shown that the ThO2 concentration ranges from 0.0033 to 0.0040 percent
and on an average 0.00365 percent that is the thorium content of Barapukuria fly ash is 31
gram/ton. The fly ash produced from Barapukuria Coal fired Thermal Power Plant contains
about 2.48 tons of thorium per annum. If the underground mining projects of Barapukuria,
Dighipara and Khalaspir produce about 12 MMT of coal per year and that be used in the
thermal power plant then 4,060 MW of electricity would be produced from our domestic
coal. The 12 MMT of coal will produce then 1.2 MMT of fly ash which would contain about
37.2 MT of Thorium per annum. According to the wikipedia website
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power), Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia of
CERN, (European Organization for Nuclear Research) estimated that one metric ton (MT) of
thorium can produce as much energy as 200 metric tons of uranium, or 3,500,000 metric tons
of coal. Following this calculation 37.2 MT of thorium can produce about 44,000 MW of
electricity.
Under these circumstances, Bangladesh can establish thorium based nuclear power plant with
its own thorium would come from fly ash. This power plant will be safer, able to produce
sufficient amount of electricity, which will be able to fulfill the present energy crisis and
future demand of the country and play vital role for the socioeconomic development of the