- Title: POLAND: Eco coal pellets to help Poland cut emissions
- Date: 10th March 2014
- Summary: SUSZEC, POLAND (FEBRUARY 26, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MACHINE PICKING UP COAL FRAGMENTS VARIOUS OF WORKER OPERATING MACHINERY AUTOMATICALLY COAL FRAGMENTS BEING DROPPED INTO PILE MACHINE SHOWING WEIGHT OF COAL PILE DIRECTOR OF NEW PROJECTS AT POLSKI KOKS, GERARD GALECZKA, WITH COLLEAGUE (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) DIRECTOR OF NEW PROJECTS AT POLSKI KOKS, GERARD GALECZKA, SAYIN
- Embargoed: 25th March 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Poland
- City:
- Country: Poland
- Topics: Business,Environment / Natural World,Energy
- Reuters ID: LVA4AJIJMMAFB49COPNMN37TAIH
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: A company in Poland is manufacturing coal-based pellets which it says could significantly reduce carbon emissions from the country's power-generating plants. The pellets combine coal with cleaner burning biofuel ingredients, producing a fuel that is just as efficient as conventional coal, but more environmentally friendly.
Polish scientists have developed a new coal-based fuel which they say burns far more cleanly than conventional coal, producing significantly less toxic pollution.
Today, 90 percent of Poland's electricity generation is based on coal-fired power stations. Although one of our most abundant fossil fuels, coal is also one of the dirtiest, but Polski Koks say their VARMO carbon pellets will produce markedly lower levels of pollution.
Ninety percent of the VARMO mixture is stone coal, with the remaining ten percent consisting of lignocellulose, sodium lignosulphonate, and technical glycerin, all components of cleaner-burning biofuel.
The company, based in the southern Polish village of Suszec, 50 miles from Krakow, had spent six years testing VARMO, before its release on February 3. The company plans to produce 60,000 tonnes of the fuel per year.
Gerard Galeczka, the company's Director of New Projects, says it uses a variety of innovative machinery to make the pellets.
"We've used machinery not used before, such as an 'extruder', which is a machine used for forming this fuel that was previously used in ceramics, such as brick. The dryer room has an ecological dryer because it works at very low temperature, so there are no harmful elements evaporating. So far it has been used to dry the sawdust before pelleting. These are the two main things," he said.
Production is almost fully automated, requiring just five factory staff to be on duty at any time. The first stage of production involves the mixing of enriched coking coal with bio-components inside two separate machines. The mixture is then poured into the extruder, which resembles a meat grinding machine, forming batches of pellets which can be used inside household and business boilers.
According to Galeczka, "coal pellets on the Polish market and, I suppose, also on the European market is a product that hasn't appeared so far. This product comes 90 percent from stone coal, while biomodificators and binders are the remaining components. This coal comes up as pellet and is especially popular here in Poland vessels with its automatic fuel feeders. We can say that this is a substitute for so called eco-pellets."
After their formation the pellets are sent to the ecological dryer to be dried at untypically low temperatures, using heat generated from methane. They are then packed automatically into paper bags for distribution.
Galeczka says that when burnt the pellets produce far less pollution than that produced by traditional coal.
"After application of our recipe, after forming it into pellets, which you have seen, we get a 90 percent reduction of the most dangerous pollution, especially benzoapyrene pollution. We also achieve the reduction of ash, that is the visible pollution coming from our chimneys. This is our most important achievement, the thing we have managed to do ecologically," said Galeczka.
Polski Koks' production costs have been estimated at 20 million Polish zloty (6.5 million USD), but the company believes investors will have recouped their investment within a decade.
Last September the Polish government announced that it would attempt to reduce its carbon emissions in line with European Union requirements by new technologies rather than by cutting its output of coal. Polski Koks believe its product can help the country meet its obligations. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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