Development of a continuous Ohmic heating to enable low cost & efficient drying of the low rank coals

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Coal generation provides 41% of electricity globally now & is forecast to drop to 34% by 2050. However, the ever increasing demand for electricity still demands over 2440 new coal plants to be build & a rise in coal usage from the current 8b tons to 15b tons (IEA & Global Coal) As global demand for coal is rising, availability of high rank coal(HRC) is declining; energy generators are forced to useLRC which are problematic due to high internal & external moisture contents (>50%) causing increased transportation costs, reactivity during transportation, higher fuel consumption per unit of output & inefficient burning causing increased CO2, SOx & NOx emissions. Buring LRC instead of HRC will increase the coal related emissions by ~8 b tons by 2030. Moreover LRC use has a deteriorating affect on the plant efficiency & life in service. With a very limited availibility of HRC, there is a need of a drying technology which can reduce the moisture contents of the LRC to make it comparable in quality to HRC. We, Coomtech Ltd, are developing a 2 stage (Internal Moisture Removal- IMR & Surface Moisture Removal- SMR) LRC drying technology “CoomCoal” with a global UK export market opportunity to decrease the LRC moisture contents by 70%, increase its CV by 60% & reduce CO2 emissions by up to 15% per ton of LRC burnt. Other benefits include low OPEX & CAPEX, lowering spontaneous combustion during storage & transportation, improved haulage economics, & low post treatment moisture re-absorption.We have already proven CoomCoal through an internal PoC & through this project aim to develop 2t/hr IMR prototype unit.