CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CSIR-CIMFR), Dhanbad, a constituent lab of CSIR, on Tuesday inked a pact with coal supplying firms and power utilities for quality analysis of coal for better power generation. As per the pact, CSIR-CIMFR would make use of its knowledgebase support in maintaining the quality of coal at national level for the entire power sector.
It is estimated that about 300 million metric tons of coal samples would be analyzed for quality per year. The contract value of the project is around Rs250 crore per annum at minimum, said a senior official from the Science and Technology Ministry.
It is expected that the project will result in improvement in performance of power plants, besides leveraging benefits to the consumer in particular and society as a whole as a result of more efficient power generation andless pollutants at generation stage.
Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan said the mandated use of super-critical technology by the upcoming coal-fired projects in India makes it necessary for the plants to run on high energy, low ash coal. In such a scenario the signing of today’s agreement assumes a lot of importance. The pilot study has been going on since January this year and now a 10-year contract is being signed for future scaling up of the process.