Displaying items by tag: Coal

Kenya: National Cement is set to build a 15MW coal-fired power plant in Kajiado at a cost of US$19m as part of its expansion plan. The plant will feed its upcoming limestone mining and clinker manufacturing operation in the same location.

National Cement will transport the clinker to its plant in Lukenya, which is being expanded to 1.7Mt/yr capacity from the current 600,000t/yr. National Cement, which produces the Simba cement brand, said that it decided to generate its own electricity because of delays in connecting to the national grid, where power is also more expensive. "The cost of procuring electricity from Kenya Power is twice as much when compared with the cost of generating power using coal," said National Cement.

Electricity supplied from the national grid currently costs an average of US$0.18/kWh. Based on current international coal prices, power generated from coal costs US$0.15/kWh. Coal prices have dropped by 18% since the start of 2014 and a further fall could make energy derived from coal even cheaper. However, the Kenyan government has said that the cost of power form the national grid could halve in the medium term on expansion of the country's generation capacity to 5000MW from the current 1300MW.

Besides seeking lower costs, National Cement has said that it has been forced to construct the coal plant due to Kenya Power's delays in connecting its Kajiado operations. "Kenya Power is also unable to provide power to National Cement within the required time frame (within two years) and only install the electricity in three years' time, while electricity is needed for the clinker manufacture in 24 months' time."

National Cement states that it will import coal from countries like South Africa, but Kenya's move to start mining its own coal could see the firm source the commodity locally in the future. The coal consumption for the proposed power plant is estimated at 63,360t/yr. Saving on energy costs is expected to boost the firm's margins, underlining the importance of lower operational costs in an industry hit by vicious price wars.

India: The Indian government plans to hasten the coal block reallocation to the private sector through auctions, although the new Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance skips the issue of a regulator. According to government officials, 74 producing blocks would be put up for online auction by December 2014 and a regulator will not be not required.

"The coal blocks, which would be put for e-auction, are all for end-usage in power, cement and iron production," said a government official. "It's the commercial mining by private companies that needs to be put under vigilance and that would be done later after the first batch of auction commences."

Valuation of coal reserves and assets in the 74 blocks will be done by a committee under Pratyush Sinha, former chief vigilance commissioner. The transparent auction process in December 2014 will start with a pool of 42 operational and 32 nearing-production mines.

Through the ordinance, the government has added enabling provisions in the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) (CMN) Act, 1973 and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, to allow commercial mining in the country.

"The priority is to make available coal to the sectors in want of fuel. Undoubtedly, once the sector opens up, a regulator would be needed. The powers and constitution of the regulatory body is yet to be dwelt upon and it would be for the non-operational cancelled coal blocks," said a government official.

The 'revelation' this week that South Korean cement producers have been paid US$127m to use/dispose of Japanese coal that is thought to be radioactive certainly sounds scary. If it is true that cement made with contaminated coal has led to the construction of radioactive buildings and roads, this may have prised open a 'can of worms' for coal producers, exporters and cement players alike. According to local media, four South Korean firms - Ssangyong Cement, Tongyang Cement, Lafarge Halla Cement and Hanil Cement - received the money to use the coal between March 2011, when the Fukashima nuclear power plant started to leak radiation, until 2013. A total of 3.7Mt of cement is 'under suspicion.'

Caesium-137 is formed by fission reactions that start with uranium-235 in nuclear reactors. The Fukushima reactor that started leaking in 2011 used this type of fuel. Once it leaked, caesium-137 was deposited into the sea and onto the land, presumably also making its way into nearby coal deposits.

As it is a metal with a melting point of just 28.5°C and a boiling point of 671°C, the caesium-137 would vaporise if it were to enter a cement production line operating at 1450°C as a metal. However, caesium will not enter the cement-making process as a metal due to its rapid and explosive reaction with water. An interesting slow-motion of this reaction can be seen here.

Instead, caesium will enter the cement-making process either as its oxide or a simple salt (e.g.: caesium chloride) in the coal. The salt will be ionized in the heat of the flame, sending caesium ions into the kiln and thus direct contact with the clinker as it is being formed. Here it will become part of the matrix of the clinker and hence the final cement product. All the time the caesium-137 is radioactive.

And it stays radioactive once it is in the finished product, for example in a building or road surface. Its half-life, the time that it takes for half of the caesium-137 to decay to meta-stable barium-137 (emitting radiation as it decays), is unfortunately very well matched to the life-span of concrete buildings at 30.7 years. This means that after about 100 years of building life the building would still be around 10% as radioactive as it was when it was built.

This would certainly be a problem if the coal was highly contaminated. However, a few questions come to mind. Firstly, if the coal contains 20-73 becquerels per kilogramme (Bq/kg) of caesium-137, as has been claimed by Lee In-young, an opposition spokesman for the New Politics Alliance for Democracy party and member of the National Assembly's Environment Labour Committee, why is this a problem when the Japanese legal limit for eating caesium-137 in contaminated vegetables is all the way up at 500Bq/kg? When the most dangerous mechanisms of caesium-137 poisoning relate to accumulation in soft tissue, how can driving along a caesium-137-containing highway constitute a health risk?

Also, the coal may well start the cement making process with 25-73Bq/kg of caesium-137 but the clinker will have a lower level. This is because for every 1t of clinker the plant will typically consume just 100-200kg of coal. The caseium-137 and hence the radiation will therefore be spread out over a larger mass. A level of 50Bq/kg in the coal would translate to a clinker level of 5-10Bq/kg. This is around 100 times lower than the Japanese vegetable limit. After this, the clinker is extended with additives to make cement. This is then added to aggregates and / or sand when concrete or mortars are made, further diluting the caesium-137, perhaps to as low as 1-5Bq/kg. It is arguable that South Korea has received a higher caesium-137 dose from Japan via air and sea than via coal imports.

In light of all this, it appears that those calling for investigations on scientific grounds, like Lee, may be misguided. However, there may be political gain. The histories of Japan and South Korea are long, violent and distrustful. Indeed, according to a BBC World Service poll conducted earlier in 2014, South Korea and China jointly have the most negative perceptions of Japan of all world nations. In this environment stories about radioactive coal become much easier to believe in.

In reality the Japanese vegetable limit is well above the likely levels that might be found in any cement products resulting from the use of this coal. It is consistent with EU limits set more than 20 years earlier (600Bq/kg). A search on the US Environmental Protection Agency's website fails to bring up any formal limit. Instead it states that everyone is exposed to caesium-137 from atmospheric fallout to a low level and that the most dangerous cases are where waste metal processors unwittingly come across sources.

So on the surface then, the South Korean reaction seems like a storm in a teacup. One question remains though. If the caesium-137 levels in the coal are so much lower than the Japanese vegetable limit, why are Korean firms being paid to take it out of Japan?

Egypt: Suez Cement has started trial production using coal at its Kattameya plant, with commercial production expected to start in November 2014, according to its chairman. Preparations for coal usage at the company's Suez plant are expected to be completed before the end of 2014.

Tanzania: The chairman and president of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is set to invest in developing the Mbinga Coal Mine in west Tanzania to power the Mtwara cement plant. The sale of excess coal will be used to finance cement exports from Tanzania.

According to reports, Dangote Cement plans to take advantage of the surge in local demand for cement amidst increased construction activity in the region using its 3Mt/yr capacity Mtwara cement plant when it is completed. Dangote Cement expects cement demand in Tanzania to surge in the near future due to the country's improving economic performance.

South Korea: According to local media, Korea's cement firms have received US$127m from the Japanese government for three years from 2011 to 2013 for bringing in Japanese coal that is thought to have been contaminated with radioactivity.

According to data submitted by the Environment Ministry to Lee In-young of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, who is also a member of the National Assembly's environment labour committee, four domestic cement firms (Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Tongyang Cement and Energy, Lafarge Halla Cement and Hanil Cement) brought in 3.69Mt of coal from Japan from 2011, when the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred, until 2013. In return, they received a total of US$127m for waste disposal.

This is the first time that the amount of money Korea's cement firms received from importing Japanese coal has been revealed. Japanese coal imported to Korea stood at 1.11Mt, worth US$39.9m in 2011, 1.23Mt or US$45.5m in 2012 and 1.35Mt or US$42.2m in 2013. The amount has continued to increase over the past three years.

"The problem is that 20-73Bq/kg of radioactive cesium was detected in the Japanese coal," said Lee. "Though this level is lower than the safety threshold (370Bq), there is the possibility of cesium exposure in everyday life, given that coal is used in cement as well as other construction and industrial materials." If the level of cesium that is radioactive exceeds the safety threshold and permeates into body, it can cause osteomyelitis or thyroid cancer, among others.

Egypt: Misr Beni Suef Cement has reached an agreement to build a coal mill worth US$27.9m in 12 months.

"The project will be funded through self-financing and loans," said Misr Beni Suef. The company expects the project to be completed by the end of 2015. Egypt is currently struggling with blackouts and the government has cut natural gas supplies to plants, which has prompted cement companies to switch to coal.

Egypt's natural gas production has been declining for years. Production in January 2014 was down by 10% from January 2013, according to the most recent government figures. In September 2014, the Egyptian government began to allow coal imports despite environmental concerns from the high pollution coal emits.

India: Shree Cement is considering importing coal from Indonesia in 2015. The Indian cement producer is in talks with Indonesian mines, according to a report by India Coal Market Watch. The report said that Shree Cement had purchased around 1.5Mt of US steam coal in 2013 – 14. Part of this allocation was re-sold by the company to brick kiln-makers in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Shree Cement is believed to have secured its steam coal and pet coke requirements until December 2014.

Energy costs for cement producers in India are set for volatility following the Supreme Court's decision this week to cancel the vast majority of allocated coal blocks. After ruling that the allocation process by the Indian government was illegal and arbitrary the court stopped 214 out of 218 coal blocks. The affected operators working on the blocks have six months until 31 March 2015 to wind down production. At this point the government intends to auction off the blocks.

The background to this decision lies in the so-called coal allocation scam or 'Coalgate.' Over 80% of coal in India is produced by the state owned company Coal India. Since 1993 though the Indian government has been allocating coal blocks or leases to mine coal for captive use by industries such as cement, steel and power generation.

However, the allocation process was accused of lacking transparency compared to an open bidding process. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India estimated the loss to the government was an incredible US$30bn. The allocation process received further scrutiny as Indian coal imports rose leading to accusations of inefficiency on the Coal India side and corruption on the coal block side. Meanwhile, major power cuts such as those in the summer of 2012 focused both domestic and industrial users' minds on the state of the country's coal industry.

Following the power cuts in 2012, an inter-ministerial panel recommended the de-allocation of two coal blocks held by five companies, including Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Grasim Industries and Lafarge India.

India's coal imports started to increase rapidly around 2009 with an annual growth rate of around 5% and a demand growth of 25% from 2009 – 2014. The majority of its imported coal comes from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa. In 2012 its coal imports were over 150Mt.

With Indian cement producers facing production overcapacity and falling profit margins in recent years, any disruption to input costs such as power is bad news. The growing import rates point to an increasing supply-demand mismatch. A more open process for the allocation of India's vast coal reserves should be good news for industrial users in the medium to long term. However, in the meantime they may face a jolt.

India: On 24 September 2014 India's Supreme Court cancelled all but four of the 218 coal blocks that have been allocated since 1993.

"We are relieved that the uncertainty is over, but now where do the cement and power plants attached to these mines get coal from?" asked Sushil Maroo, a director of Essar Energy and CEO of Essar Power. "What happens to the expenses already incurred? The government needs to give clarity on the modus operandi." The company stands to lose three coal blocks.

"This move will have an extremely negative impact on cement, steel and power companies as an issue that is almost 21 years old is now being addressed," said Issac George, CFO at GVK Power & Infrastructure. "A lot of investments have gone into these blocks, which will now be impacted. Most companies will have no option but to bid in the new round of auctions as one cannot depend on imported coal."

Coal-based projects represent about 59% of India's total installed power generation capacity. Apart from the cancellation, operational mines will have to pay a penalty of US$4.79 for every tonne of coal extracted since they started.

Coal India is set to take over the mines. In 2013 - 2014 Coal India produced 462Mt of coal, missing a target of 482Mt. The coal ministry anticipates that local supplies will fall by as much as 185Mt short of the country's projected demand of 950Mt in 2016 - 2017. The gap could widen if the cancelled mines fail to produce the projected volumes of coal.