Value conversion to coal

Coal is known to be a dirty fuel from the time of its discovery and utilisation. Frankly speaking, it is dirtier than other fossil fuels like natural gas, petroleum oil and their by-products. But still, this "black gold" is mined and traded worldwide where there exists demand-supply shortage of primary energy. The reason is very simple; energy resources are unevenly dispersed in the earth's shell and all nations don't have equal access to them.
World's average energy consumption has increased by about 45 per cent over last two decades during 1990-2010 and the consumption growth is expected to increase by about 56 per cent from 2010-2040. Future energy growth will take place mostly in the non-Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Develppment (OECD) countries where energy demand will be driven by strong economic growth. Mining of many non-viable fossil fuel deposits has become profitable now which was non-viable a decade ago and the progress will continue to be strong in the future as well.
For mining coal fields, the major constraints are supposed to be the environment, land, water management, heavy metal contamination etc. The constraints are not only genuine for coal but also for other fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Once fossil fuel is extracted from the earth's crust, the carbon inside it is exposed to the atmosphere in any form whether it is today or several years later. So, we must not disagree that the environment is susceptible to every piece of development activities; we cannot avoid it fully but we can balance the the development progress to acclimatise to the environment. The capital city of Bangladesh is the fifth most polluted cities in the world as per the World Bank Survey 2014. This has been caused over the years through unmanaged activities of building construction, filling canals, sanctuaries, concentrated mass industrialisation in Dhaka city and its outskirts and mass migration from villages to the capital city.
In most cases, the argument of pollution pops up when issues for developing the coal fields are envisaged where circa 2.2 billion tons (55 TCF natural gas equivalent) proven coal reserve sits idle underground in the north-western part of Bangladesh. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth stands stagnant at 6.0 per cent while sufficient energy supply can easily move the GDP up to 8.0 per cent. Natural gas reserve is going to be exhausted by 2020 unless new exploration hits any sizable reserve. Thus, mounting energy crisis over the years now makes people rethink whether this valuable ore should remain unutilised.
In the Vision 2030 -- "The long term power development strategy for Bangladesh" -- primary fuel diversification strategy has been taken into consideration in PSMP-2010 for attaining electricity generation about 17,000 megawatts (MW) in 2020, 25,000MW in 2025 and 34,000MW in 2030. The strategy aims to achieve a fuel mix of 50 per cent from coal (domestic + import), 25 per cent from natural gas including LNG, 5.0 per cent from liquid fuel and 20 per cent from nuclear, cross-border electricity trade & renewable sources.
To achieve this objective, the country would require about 240 million tons of coal upto 2030 of which 111 million tons will come fom own coal mine and 129 million tons from imported sources. Aggressive development of own coal fields is perceived from 2020 as per the PSMP plans. However, the practical scenario is just the opposite; there is wide discrepancy between the plans and implemetation activities. Time is unfortunately is running out and unless steps are taken today, it will remain merely a plan on paper.
Among the five coal fields in Bangladeh, Jamalganj coal field in Joypurhat district contains the highest deposits to the tune of 1,050 million tons of coal at depths of 640-1158 meters. The mine is suitable for UCG method for coal extraction in the form of in-situ syngas generation. As UCG technology is yet to be in the process of commercialisation, development of Jamalganj coal field may be considered later at the stage when UCG method attains technological maturity. Other four coal fields namely Barapukuria, Phulbari, Khalashpir and Dighipara having their combined coal deposits about 1,170 million tons (about 29 TCF natural gas equivalent) could be taken under development consideration.
Barapukuria is in production and needs further developmet for higher amount of coal extraction. As the coal fields are located within 30 km distance, the best choice of mine development is combining them under a mega "Coal Hub Development Project". The project should consist of local awareness programme, health care center, mine development, environment & water management, infrastructure development, resettlement & compensation, industrial park, coal transportation etc.
To develop "Coal Hub Project" circa 600 square km area needs to be earmarked in which coal field area is about 40 sq km. The lands where the coal fields are located are mostly dual-crop agriculture lands and income generation from these lands is in the region of US $10 million per annum. The amount is very meagre compared to billion/trillion dollar revenue earning prospect from the "Coal Hub Project" scheme.  
The quality of Bangladesh coal is good enough and competitive with British, Australian coal and better than Indonesian coal which we call 'B' rank one. Ash content is in the range of 6.0-12 wt per cent and HHV is 11,000-13,000 Btu/lb. Sulphur content is very negligible; in the region of only 0.5wt per cent but it has got value even minor amount of sulphur could be converted to valuable suphuric acid product; the basic chemical which we import in large quantity every year. Approximately 4,000 tons/day coal utilisation may be able to give suphur feed stock for the production of 65 tons/day suphuric acid commercial grade (98 per cent concentration) as by-product.
At a time when technology was not so sophisticated and commerocially economic, enterpreneurs merely considered coal as the primary fuel for generating electricity. But things have changed now as coal being utilised as the feedstock of numerous valuable chemical products, synthetic natural gas and liquid fuel. This has become possible with the advent of developing "Clean Coal Technology". Coal Gasification Technology (CGT) is such kind of cleaner technology  which arouses people's interest for producing valuable goods & services while environment impact could be reduced through achieveing higher productivity & higher thermal efficiency at reduced quantity of coal consumption.       
Pulverised coal feedstock is allowed to undergo several complex reactions with steam and oxygen in the gasifier to produce syngas which is a mixture of (CO+H2) at very high temperature; usually 1000-1600oC depending on the choice of gasifier. This is the basic route of clean technology process. Once syngas is produced, a wide array of channels are opened-up for the manufacture of a great number of valuable products including power & steam generation. Thus, the black gold of Bangladesh is capable of providing much higher value towards the economy than our general imagination.
Two main issues are worth considering for developing coal hub project scheme: (1) Proper utilisation of land & resettlement programme and (2) Post management of environment & adaptation programme. At this developing stage of Bangladesh, concerns of CO2 emission from coal burning should be given relaxed bindings because our per capita CO2 emission is only 0.4 metric tons. The amount is only 6.5 per cent of China, 23.5 per cent of India, 4.35 per cent of Japan, 2.3 per cent of USA, 3.3 per cent of Russian Federation, 5.5 per cent of European Union and 2.4 per cent of Australia.
Foot-dragging attitude towards exploiting own coal will create a situation that at some point of time the precious treasure would turn into a lost treasure. The future generations of Bangladesh will blame their ancestors that the resources were not utilised at the time of extreme need. There is hardly any excuse for not developing Coal Hub for monetising the resources lying at subsurface level in the underdeveloped north-western region of Bangladesh. Massive economic transactions could have been taken place through this development resulting in a major improvement in living standards of inhabitans in the region and the country's achieving 8.0 per cent GDP would not be a problem.  
The writer is a Chemical Engineer & MBA