India enters green coal technology era in Vijaywada

BHEL and APGENCO have signed an agreement to set up a 125 Mw power plant at Vijaywada using IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) technology that BHEL has been working on for the past two decades. A 6 Mw pilot plant has been running at BHEL, Tiruchi since 1983 and this is now being upscaled to commercial size. IGCC produces significantly less greenhouse gases, has operating efficiency of around 40%, reduces water consumption by about 40% and also has lower solid waste production. IGCC also offers a technical pathway for cost-effective separation of carbon dioxide and co-production of hydrogen.

The agreement was signed on the 10th of May,2008 in Vishakapatnam in the presence of the Union Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram, the Union Minister for Heavy Industry, Shri Santosh Mohan Dev and the Minister of State for Power and Commerce, Shri Jairam Ramesh.

Complimenting BHEL and APGENCO for what he termed a “ truly historic initiative”, Shri Jairam Ramesh said that this project has major implications for India’s energy strategy that has to reckon seriously with international concerns on global warming arising out of expanding coal use. There are seven or eight IGCC plants in the 250-300 Mw range in other countries like the USA but they all use low ash coal, Shri Jairam Ramesh said. The Vijaywada plant will use high ash Indian coals. It will cost around Rs 950 crores, of which roughly Rs 420 crores will come from BHEL and the balance Rs 530 crores from APGENCO. The project is scheduled for commissioning in mid-2011. More...