Coal drives Indian economy. Coal mining started in 1774 with total production of about 6 million tones per year. The current production is greater than 286 million tones. Raniganj coal field is the largest coal mines in India. Like any other coal mines in the world, coal fire in Raniganj is very common. This is true with  other coal mines in the country as well. For example, several coal seams in Jharkhand and Bihar are burning underground. Coal mine fires are due to primary combustion when oxygen and water are introduced through cracks and unsealed shafts. These coal fires continue through several years Most underground coal fires exhibit smoldering combustion and may only involve relatively small amounts of coal capable of burning in the presence of small amount (2%) of oxygen.  To give an example of the magnitude of this hazard, in USA there are nearly 600 coal mine fires burning over a period of 80 years. Other under ground coal mines that are burning is located in Russia and in several east European countries.  These fires are located at shallow depth and the depth in many cased do not go beyond 400-500 m. Till now this heat energy available is not put to use. Heat exchanger technology commonly used in geothermal power generation can easily be adopted in regions where under ground coal mine fire is common and perennial. Continuous heat source from burning coal seams underground will provide continuous electric supply. This method controls underground coal fires, controls CO2 emission and generate electric power to million rural homes. We have the know how and need will to implement it!!
Archive for June, 2010
Wastewater treatment plants are an important component of urban cities. With exponential industrial and population growth, the volume of material these plants have to accommodate in future will grow by several orders of magnitude. This amounts to consumption of large amount of fossil fuels based power. Escalation of fossil fuel cost is a deterrent to many wastewater treatment plants. Heat pump and heat exchanger technologies that is commonly adopted in geothermal industry can be integrated with wastewater treatment plants to implement CDM in several urban cities and make cities green for the future generation.
34 2008 Lake Hussain Sagar Environ Pollu Control J 11, 5 July 2008 14 19
Green Power Technology to Clean the Hussain Sagar Lake and support its neighborhood energy utility†in “Technology Update†Environmental Pollution Jour., July-Aug 2008
What people said at WGC 2010
At the World Geothrmal Congress 2010 held at Bali, several people across the world were interviewed. Here is what they said.
Future growth of electric power
“â€The world net electricity demand is going to increase by a factor of two from 2004 to 2030 and the demand of electricity is expected to rise from the present 16,424 TWh to 30,364 TWh in 2030 (EIA 2007). This demand is expected to grow at the rate of 3.5% in the non-OECD  countries while in the OECD countries it is expected to grow at the rate of 1.3%. This indicates that the demand will be greater in the developing countries and electricity generation in the developing countries will increase by several folds relative to the industrialized countries. Thus the developing countries are the future primary emitters of large volumes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuel based power plants.â€â€
Â
“””………………………… However, at the recently held World Geothermal Congress 2010, in Bali, an excellent concept paper entitled “Can Geological Radioactive Waste Disposal Sites Be Used as EGS Sites? Was presented that attracted several scientists across the world. If this method is perfected, world can get adequate power at affordable cost and keep the high level waste safely under control.
 Together with EGS could this be the ultimate solution to control climate change and power millions?? ……..how is this…watch  for more news on this……………………..”” was the news on 27th May 2010.
Here’s the  newsÂ