27/04/2009
Article Details
Source: Australian Associated Press Pty Limited (AAP)
Article Date: 27/04/2009
Summary
Australia’s White Energy Company says it has built the world’s largest clean coal plant, in Indonesia.
White Energy said on Monday that it had finished construction, in conjunction with Bayan Resources, of the first one million tonne‐a‐year clean coal plant at the Tabang mine in East Kalimantan.
Indonesian coal company Bayan Resources owns the mine.
“It will be our first full commercial production, large‐scale operating plant, providing the first steady revenue stream to White Energy,” chief executive John Atkinson said in a statement.
White Energy uses CSIRO technology to upgrade low‐quality coal to reduce its moisture content, allowing it to be burnt cleaner.
However, University of Melbourne associate professor Sandra Kentish sounded a note of caution about how useful the technology may be toreduce carbon emissions.
“I doubt it is significantly reducing the Co2 footprint, but it is cleaner (coal) as it will possibly have slightly lower Co2 emissions and possibly lower emissions like sulfur dioxide, mercury etc,” Prof. Kentish said.
“The word clean coal someone dreamt up, and it has no vigorous definition,” she said.
Mr Atkinson told AAP that the coal his company processed had the same Co2 footprint as high‐moisture coal but created more energy.
“There are significant life‐cycle savings from a carbon emissions perspective if you can upgrade high‐moisture coal,” he said.
“This includes transportation and all the things that go … towards that final carbon figure.
“We don’t promote ourselves as an environmental company, because we understand we are in the coal industry,” he said.
White Energy shares closed up two cents at $1.52.