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Southern Africa: PHK Commissions Coal Washing Plant
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
14 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Gaborone
The Minister for Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Ponatshego Kedikilwe is scheduled to perform the official opening of the multi-million pula Morupule Coal Washing Plant in Palapye today.
The P87 million plant will improve the quality of coal by treating 30 000 tonnes of the black stone every month. It will also help Morupule's drive for a cleaner atmosphere. Washing coal improves its value by reducing its ash and sulphur content, that way increasing its caloric value or energy content.
"Many countries these days have strict regulations regarding emissions of offensive gases like sulphur-dioxide into the atmosphere," says Moruntshi Kemorwale, Communications Officer at Morupule Colliery. "This coal washing plant can be seen as our response to the challenges of ensuring that we have cleaner air and of giving our customers value for money because you get more calories from washed coal."
The plant was built by South African company DRA Plant Design and Control Engineers. The amount of ash will be reduced from 20.4 percent to 12.6 percent, while the amount of sulphur will drop from 1.60 percent to 0.50 percent. The project is being commissioned at a time when the SADC region is in a power crisis, leading to an increase in the demand for coal, especially in South Africa.
Already, Morupule Colliery supplies coal to Zimbabwe, the DRC and Zambia and is sitting on a coal field of about 15 billion tonnes expected to last for 15 000 years at current mining rates. Overall, Botswana has known coal reserves of over 200 billion tonnes, which are enough to satisfy local and regional coal needs. At time of construction, Morupule's parent company Debswana said it believed that Morupule Colliery's sale of graded coal would more than double once washed coal sales commence. The plant is being commissioned at a time when Government is about to launch Morupule B, an expansion project aimed at making Botswana self-sufficient in electricity Two companies, including a Chinese firm that has a reputation for delivering projects on time, have been short-listed for the project.
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According to a Botswana Power Corporation's (BPC) Generation Expansion Feasibility Study of 2003, the expansion will comprise 6 x 100 MW being installed in progressive stages - 400 MW in 2009/10, 100 MW in 2018 and 100 MW by 2023. As part of the feasibility study, a coal mine plan covering a period of 25 years, is to be developed.
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