diesel and electricity from coal?

[Saleem]

dr sumar mubarakmand

Capital Talk 30th November 2010

 

[VCheng]

This is nothing new.

Getting liquid hydrocarbon fuels from coal is based on the Fischer-Tropsch process, which was pioneered in Germany in the 1920s, and has been greatly refined since then.

Operating a large scale plant like this takes a lot of chemical engineering knowhow as well as a sizeable financial investment to build the plant in the first place.

 

[Malik Usman]

Good news is he said in first estimation....Pakistan has coal reserves from where we can produce 50000 Mega Watts electricity per year for next 500 years. Which will be cheap as 3 to 4 Cents per unit.

 

[Hyde]

That was video of the day for me!

Must watch video - espacially part 2

 

[somebozo]

Well Pakistan has the so called brown coal which is damp and in incomplete form and hence cannot be burned directly...but is suitable for conversion into gas and hydrocarbon through underground reaction. But I have an interesting question..why our top of the line nuclear minds wasting their time on hydro carbon when they should be planning to build more nuke reactors for energy and water desalination.

 

[VCheng]

Good news is he said in first estimation....Pakistan has coal reserves from where we can produce 50000 Mega Watts electricity per year for next 500 years. Which will be cheap as 3 to 4 Cents per unit.

Those figures are INCORRECT.

 

[Hyde]

Those figures are INCORRECT.

now Dr Samar Mubarakmand is one of the top scientist of Pakistan

If he is incorrect then whats true?

Yes you can feel free to decrease 500 years to 300 if you want

But if you keep the total reserves in mind what is so illogical in it?

 

[VCheng]

now Dr Samar Mubarakmand is one of the top scientist of Pakistan

If he is incorrect then whats true?

Yes you can feel free to decrease 500 years to 300 if you want

But if you keep the total reserves in mind what is so illogical in it?

It is not the total life of the reserves.

Some quick figures:

1 ton of coal produces about 2 MW-HRS of electricity.

To produce 100 MW for a whole day, one needs 1200 tons of coal.

For 5000 MW, one needs 60,000 tons of coal per day.

One 100 car train carries about 10,000 tons of coal.

My point:

To set up such a large scale power plant, the financing costs, build out time and operating costs mean that the power cost figures quoted CANNOT be correct.

 

[Hyde]

It is not the total life of the reserves.

Some quick figures:

1 ton of coal produces about 2 MW-HRS of electricity.

To produce 100 MW for a whole day, one needs 1200 tons of coal.

For 5000 MW, one needs 60,000 tons of coal per day.

One 100 car train carries about 10,000 tons of coal.

My point:

To set up such a large scale power plant, the financing costs, build out time and operating costs mean that the power cost figures quoted CANNOT be correct.

and your method of calculation is wrong

we are not planning to generate electricity from Coal. We are planning to generate electricity by Gas (coal-gasification)

We are not going to use coal as a source of generating electricity... they will burn coal with high temperature inside the same coal mines to convert into gas that can be used for any purpose including generation of electricity or industrial usage by connecting with Sui Northern Gas or any other company

 

[VCheng]

and your method of calculation is wrong

we are not planning to generate electricity from Coal. We are planning to generate electricity from the Gas converted from Coal deep deep inside the coal mines

We are not going to use coal as a source of generating electricity... they will burn coal with high temperature inside the same coal mines to convert into gas that can be used for any purpose including generation of electricity or industrial usage by connecting with Sui Northern Gas

You mean this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_coal_gasification


It cannot work as you have described it to produce the power in the amounts at the costs mentioned.

 

[Hyde]

You mean this?

Underground coal gasification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


It cannot work as you have described it to produce the power in the amounts at the costs mentioned.

But according to the scientists in Pakistan... The costs are much lower than a simple coal project

$1 vs $1.6 dollars

If you watch the video from post 1... he explains the process how this is going to work

Watch it once before raising questions

 

[VCheng]

But according to the scientists in Pakistan... The costs are much lower than a simple coal project

$1 vs $1.6 dollars

If you watch the video from post 1... he explains the process how this is going to work

Watch it once before raising questions

I am ALL for it! Plus, I hope it will be great success for Pakistan.

My skepticism is based on other factors though.