Dear Energy Professionals and Colleagues,
The Turkish Mineral Research & Exploration Institute (MTA) publicly announced in 2007 that a new important lignite coal field wasdiscovered in the Karapinardistrictof Konya Province inInnerAnatolia.
The coal is very similar to the AfsinElbistan reserves. The Konya Karapinarcoal istechnically challenging in content with a low calorific heating value (LHV) at about an average of 1,374(within a range of 1,300- 1,500) kcal per kg.Elementary analysis finds it contains approximately 46-49% moisture, 19-22% ash, and 2-3.5% in sulfur content.
Large domestic coal reserves are also waiting to beexploitedin the vast nearby AfsinElbistan basin, and also in Adana Tufanbeyli and Konya Ilgin.
We can have both sustainable and environmentally-friendly electricity generation with clean coal technologies and also gain a positive social impact on our economy.
These expectations are not so easy with today's market logic. A master plan for regional development must be prepared for the region.
The master plan should cover Konya Karapýnar, Elbistan, Adana Tufanbeyli, and even the Sivas Kangallignite coal mines.
The Karapýnarlignite coal mine wasdiscovered a few years ago.We were toldby local media sources that there are a number of seriously interested investors already mobilized to exploit the new coal resources.
The coal mine is in a remote area, scarcelypopulatedand with limited agricultural activity nearby.
For investment options, we can evaluate leasing, public investment, tendering, public-private partnership (PPP), build-operate (BO) and build-operate-transfer (BOT) models.
PPP seems appropriate provided that we integrate it into a major master plan.
We have 1.6 billion metric tons of provenlignite coal reserves in the field with vast economic valueto be exploited with mostly open pit mining technologies ata 6.54 m3/ton overburden ratio to enable the building of a6000 MWe thermal power plant in the end, within thirty years of a proven mine depletion period.
A ballpark estimate is a US$1.7-2 costper cubic meter of coal, covering a total of US$6.50-7 for coal stripping the overburden plus other expenses that may amount to a total of US$9.00 per ton of coal (EUAS) or approximatelyUS $1.65 per MMBTU, leading to a final electricity generation cost of approximately7.0 UScents per kWh.
The estimatedmaximum total of US$2 billion in investments for each 1400 MWe TPP unit designed to use the latest clean coal technology may pay off in approximately less than eight to ten years with an overall 33% plant efficiency, with6500 hours of total operation per year.
That is electricity generation from your own resources. No need for imports. There is no negative impact on the current account deficit (CAD).
In this project, a public-private partnership (PPP) model could be developed, since the public sector can handle certain major problems such as water supply, river bed changes, relocation of local people, and project guarantees.
The high moisture content in available coal makes circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology very difficult to implement. New clean coal technologies can be applied.
Hence carbon capture and storage (CCS), integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), oxy-firing, and underground gasification technologies should be investigated.
The treasury had previously received guaranteed government-to-government loans. Today such loansare no longer applicable.
Today's most popular financing option is the “non-recourse” financing application. In this model, a project company is formed separate from investors; it is established by calculating the life of the project and the costs of credit given to the project company. So that project cost does not affect the sponsors' own budgets.
There are many local engineering companies whichcan use the latest available clean coal technologies.
There are also reputable local universities whichare using academic versions of thermal power plant software within an increment of itscommercial application, with one important precondition that they mention the name of the software in their academic articles.
We have many new M.Sc. and Ph.D. dissertations which used the academic thermal power plant design software.
Karapýnarlignite could be enriched withopen-air drying or moisture capture prior to pulverized firing. That could be done via drying or byelectro static precipitator (ESP) applications, or other means.
CFB is possible but we also need enrichment up to 2000 kcal/kg LHV, or 3000 BTU/lb HHV. Available references elsewhere are not compatible with the coal.
Similarly,IGCC needs further academic investigations prior to any commercial applications. Oxy-fuel is theoretically possible but we do not have any reliable practical research.
Please do note that those foreign off-the-shelf designs are obsolete, they do not work. East Asian supplies are worse. A cheap East Asian workforce is not available anymore due to changes in the local legislation to promote more local employment.
Local engineers are to concentrate on their own designs of steam generators specially created for their own local lignite.
Do not rely on foreign financing, which will advise their obsolete lignite firing technologies. They did not work in the past; hence they will not work in future.
In Karapýnar, clean coal technologies can create a great opportunity for local engineers as well as all interested local parties to enable them to learn from past mistakes, in order to investigate possible and applicable technologies,the implementation of applicable “non-recourse” financing schemes, and assess the available intellectual capability of the local human resources.
Local coal is our future for our energy security.Therefore, we need to allocate more academic and commercial funds in order to conductmore research on the design and development of local fuel resources that will enable thebetter firing of available local coal in thermal power plants of our own design. Ahappy and prosperous New Year to you all!
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*HalukDireskeneli, Ankara-based energy Analyst
References:
http://www.euas.gov.tr/HaberEkResimleri/EUASkomursahalaritanitim-ETKB.pdf
http://library.cu.edu.tr/tezler/8141.pdf
http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/10/1151/2010/nhess-10-1151-2010.pdf
Short Resume of the Author
HalukDireskeneli is a graduate of the METU Mechanical Engineering department (1973). He worked in public and private enterprises, U.S. Turkish JV companies (B&W, CSWI, AEP, Entergy), in fabrication, basic and detail design, marketing, and sales and project management of thermal power plants. He is currently working as freelance consultant/energy analyst with thermal power plant basic/detail design software expertise for private engineering companies, investors, universities and research institutions. He is a member of the Chamber of Turkish Mechanical Engineers Energy Working Group.
Afsin-Elbistan’s Latest Status - Draft Report
