HomeGLIMPSE OF 7th Roundtable Conference on Coal |
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Introduction
This Roundtable is organised on a Biennial basis jointly by India Energy Forum, a premier think tank in the country on Energy issues, Delhi Chapter of Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India (MGM) which is the oldest professional body in India looking after Mining, Geology and Metallurgy Sciences and Indian School of Mines Alumni Association which has been making meaningful contribution in the field of disseminating knowledge about advancement of MiningScience and Technology.
The idea of having this Roundtable Conference arose out the fact that Coal has been and will continue to be the prime commercial energy source in India and a suitable platform should be available for dissemination of knowledge about developments in coal Sector and exchange of ideas among Policy Makers and Coal Professionals for guiding the destiny of the Indian Coal Sector.
The subject Conference will be 7th in the series and has been conceptualised and designed taking into account the Coal scenario in India as it exists today and is going to unfold in immediate as well as long term future dr the challenges that Coal Sector in India will have to tackle arising out of global campaign for cutting down on Coal consumption.
Preamble
Indian Coal Sector is facing an unprecedented dilemma arising out of:1. Country's commitment at Paris to cutting down on Green House Gas Emissions by 30% compared to the level in 2005.
2. The coal requirement in the country going up and projected to grow atleast for next two decades which will surely add to Green House Gas emissions.
3. Despite being endowed with huge coal resources of the order of 320 billion tons, the country not producing enough coal to meet its requirement and dependence on Import going up and
4. Ultimately when the country's dependence on Coal as a prime energy source is over, diversification in its usage so that the Nature's bounty in the form of coal resources can continue to be utilised for making effective contribution. Despite all the advances made in the country towards improving the living standard of the large population by providing more energy/ power per capita, India is still at 1/3rd of the world average. This indicates clearly that there is a massive leeway to be made. This means not only providing more affordable but also more reliable power on 24/7 basis to the consumers particularly to the poor and rural segment of the population. In this context, Coal is the only energy source since country is deficient in other Fossil energy sources like Oil and gas, Hydel power involves submergence of huge land mass and Nuclear energy still has safety related issues.
A very ambitious programme for creating 175 GW generation capacity based on Renewables has been launched but this, in the present state of technological development will not contribute to base load requirement for which dependence on Coal will continue.
As per projections available going forward the share of Coal in the over all energy basket in the country will go down but total coalrequirement in absolute terms will continue to grow.Normally, with the huge resource base, the country should have no problem in meeting its requirement but unfortunately, the coal shortage has become endemic and the import dependence has continued to grow.
The immediate demand on Indian Coal Industry is therefore, to produce enough for meeting the country's needsand yet the production and consumption systems have to be made so environment -friendly that these don't make unacceptable addition to Green House Gas emissions.
Simultaneously, it has got to be accepted that going forward, a day will certainly come and it is not very far off that Coal will lose its dominant position in the country's energy scenario and yet country will not be able to lose the huge contribution that Coal is making to the national economy.
Coal, fortunately is a very versatile commodity-it can be used as an energy source as well as the feed -stock for producing chemicals and other products which are more valuable than the power for generating which coal is primarily used today. Development of technologies for other gainful usage of coal will take time, resources and dedication and it is time that we get down to this task so that there is no time-gap between the loss of dominant position of Coal as energy source and effective utilisation of Coal for producing chemicals, fertilisers, oil etc.
This requires well-planned and well -coordinated efforts on the part of policy makers, mine planners, coal producers and coal consumers.
On the one hand effective steps need to be taken for achieving immediate increase in coal production to cut down on Imports and evolving technologies for use of non-coking coal for steel production development of appropriate India -centric technologies for reducing the impact of coal combustion on environment and on carbon capture and sequestration and on the other we have concentrate on deploying established technologies & engage in serious R&D efforts to develop new technologies for utilisation of our coal resources for valuable products like Chemicals Fertilisers, Oil etc.
It is in consideration of this task ahead that the theme for the Round Table has been selected as "Indian coal-Potential and Diversification".
The focus of the Round Table Conference will cover the entire Coal value-chain starting from exploration, production, utilisation and Research and Development so that the task before the Indian Coal Sector - meeting the current and future requirement of Coal, making Coal utilisation environment - friendly and enabling coal continue to make its contribution to the National wealth even when it becomes a secondary player in matters of power generation is achieved.
Relevant issues to be dwelt upon have been identified as under:
- Augmenting Coal production -
- Expediting Approvals
- Land Acquisition and R&R
- Creating Evacuation Infrastructure
- Making coal value -chain environment friendly and diversification in coal usage
- Coal Beneficiation
- CBM
- Alternative Usage of Coal
- CoalGasification-U/G & Surface
- Coal to Liquid/ Chemicals/ Methanol/ Fertilisers
Successful organisation of an Event of this nature and magnitude will require the active support of all the stakeholder in Coal Sector like Coal Producers, Coal Consumers, Regulatory Authorities in general and that of Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Indian Railways, concerned State Governments in particular. This support has already been sought and assured.
