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Thar coal mining project in Pakistan | Updates & Discussions.

Understand that GOP has decided to stop funding Dr Mubarakmand's UCG project. The project will probably be shelved.

Can anyone with contacts in the Finance Ministry confirm this?
 
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Another project shelved after pumping in a lot of money.

Dr Samar was very hopeful with the pilot project and the supposed flame, and said that generators were coming on short scale if I recall correctly.

And has it been the initiative of Finance ministry or power ministry, which has the dubious figure of Ahmed Mukhtar at the helm.
 
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I have not heard about this project being shelved. The funds were not being received but the work was still going on. I had heard the funds will be released soon but don't think they have shelved the entire project.
 
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Understand that GOP has decided to stop funding Dr Mubarakmand's UCG project. The project will probably be shelved.

Can anyone with contacts in the Finance Ministry confirm this?

While the claims were impossible to achieve, the project itself deserves to be completed if finances allow, for even the smaller, realistic goals would help the energy-starved economy.
 
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load shading will not end by 2018 said government until the dams are complete and until now no foreign company is willing to take the projects reason every one wants commission and it wasn’t of the commission in fuel Pakistan would not have been facing the load shading and the coal no matter how many we have cant use them mate need to change the leaders and the minds of those who elect them long live Pakistan.:pakistan:
 
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We have road transporters (Bilour) as Minister for Railways who has ensured that Railway is virtually destroyed. We had people who stopped privatization of steel mill because GOP was selling a national asset very cheap. Now the same steel mill is a bottomless pit devouring billions of rupees every year. PIA, once great people to fly with is another white elephant.

There are far too many posts in this very thread where members have boasted that we have the biggest coal reserves in the world and felt great about. Have you seen any real benefit to the nation from this greatest coal field in the world? All the gold and copper deposits in Baluchistan are merely “Deposits” with no return for the national exchequer. How long would we wait for return from this potential great wealth of ours?

Eventually may be, but not in our (at least mine) lifetime. Because Pakistan is severely lacking in human resource, which is the most valuable commodity in the world.

We read about the hundreds of trillions cft of ‘frac gas’. Ground realty is that we have severe shortage of gas and of electricity (some parts of the country is suffering from 18 hours a day of load shedding). We are incapable of stopping terrorists destroying PN aircrafts, attacking the GHQ. We can’t even keep our most dangerous criminals from breaking out of prison! They dole out crores of rupees to politicians for election campaign but despite severe power shortage, PPP can’t find $90-million to exploit Thar coal project!

What is the point of having natural resource if the nation gets no benefit out of it? I repeat that real shortage in Pakistan is of competent executives, competent politicians, and competent leaders of the armed forces and competent managers of industry; in short of competent human resource. If you point out a few scientists such as AQ Khan & Mubarakmand, I would say that exception proves the rule.

Main culprit however is the Pakistani public, who provide succour to the terrorists (FDI has disappeared as a result) and who vote in the same dastardly corrupt elite again and again.

I sincerely pray Allah to keep Pakistan safe as Pakistanis are hell bent on destroying it.
 
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What is the point of having natural resource if the nation gets no benefit out of it? I repeat that real shortage in Pakistan is of competent executives, competent politicians, and competent leaders of the armed forces and competent managers of industry; in short of competent human resource. If you point out a few scientists such as AQ Khan & Mubarakmand, I would say that exception proves the rule.

Main culprit however is the Pakistani public, who provide succour to the terrorists (FDI has disappeared as a result) and who vote in the same dastardly corrupt elite again and again.

I sincerely pray Allah to keep Pakistan safe as Pakistanis are hell bent on destroying it.

You hit the jackpot.
 
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Main culprit however is the Pakistani public, who provide succour to the terrorists (FDI has disappeared as a result) and who vote in the same dastardly corrupt elite again and again.

I sincerely pray Allah to keep Pakistan safe as Pakistanis are hell bent on destroying it.

How can the people be the culprits if they are doing what they want for their nation and themselves?
 
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There are some government of sindh ads recently in TV and in those ads, there is also a energy section

It is written that by 2020 there will be 10,000 MW of electricity produced from Thar coal. The figure seems really far fetched considering that right now, the production is negligible and no significant progress has been made. So just a election ploy or is there something going on?
 
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There are some government of sindh ads recently in TV and in those ads, there is also a energy section

It is written that by 2020 there will be 10,000 MW of electricity produced from Thar coal. The figure seems really far fetched considering that right now, the production is negligible and no significant progress has been made. So just a election ploy or is there something going on?

That is just about as likely as pigs flying interplanetary space missions, not just flying about in the air.
 
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There are some government of sindh ads recently in TV and in those ads, there is also a energy section

It is written that by 2020 there will be 10,000 MW of electricity produced from Thar coal. The figure seems really far fetched considering that right now, the production is negligible and no significant progress has been made. So just a election ploy or is there something going on?
This just seems to be election gimic. Had they been so sincere they would have at least released funds to Dr Samar for a hundred megawatt plant.
 
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One doese not have to agree with the writer of the artilce below, but he seems to know what he is talking about. Whereas my naive countrymen never stop gloating over the so called 85-billion ton of Thar coal.


Thar coal: not a feasible option


THERE has been a debate in the media about underground coal gasification by the burning of Thar coal.

Thar coal’s product is useful for several purposes, especially for power generation. From the ongoing deliberations it is evident that opponents of this method are many; Dr Samar Mubarakmand is the only one advocating it tooth and nail.

Being a mining engineer myself, I have been following this debate with keen interest.
All coal in Sindh is ‘lignite’, i.e. brown coal, (very young) the first rank in the ladder of coal formation. Therefore, the rocks (mostly clays and sands) over and underlying this lignite are young, weak and friable, thus are not at all self – supporting.

In the case of fire, it will result in hollow spaces by consuming coal underground. The roof of this hollow space consisting of soft, friable clays and sands will not hold for long and will collapse, thus completely filling/choking the space created by the burnt – out coal/lignite.
As huge quantities of coal will have to be burnt to feed the proposed plants, large hollow spaces will be created with no support to hold the roof/upper strata of those spaces, and will collapse filling/ choking these spaces.

Therefore, the fire once started will continue till such time the hollow space is not large enough to cause a fall. This respite may not be more than a few days at a time. The instant it reaches that stage, falls will cause choking and extinguish the fire underground.
The underground coal gasification (UGC) gasification/burning is practicable and effective in stratas which are strong and self – supporting to a great extent.

This only is possible in higher rank coals having strong self – supporting upper and lower strata. Also UGC gasification is preferable in situations where underground mining is not economically feasible due to difficult mining conditions.

Sustaining the coal for large volumes and for longer periods seems to be impossible for reasons enumerated above.The only viable method of mining Thar coal is by ‘open pit’.

Thar coal seems not at all suitable for underground mining due to their geological formation. Mining lignite coal by underground mining method is wasteful and especially in case of Thar coal it is not at all feasible because of multi – seam deposition.

Also for power generation etc large quantities of coal are required which cannot easily be mined in this way.

SHAHID ALI BAIG
Karachi

Thar coal: not a feasible option | DAWN.COM
 
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Thar project is nation’s future, says Raja

THARPARKAR: Completion of the Thar coal power project will bring about a revolution not only in the life of locals but also ensure prosperity in Sindh and the entire country, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said at a public meeting here on Thursday.

Earlier he visited the test burn site of the pilot project undertaken by nuclear scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand. “The coal reserve in one block alone can produce two billion barrels of diesel,” the prime minister said.

He said three companies — Global Mining China, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company and Oracle Coalfields UK — were working on three other blocks.

The prime minister recalled that Benazir Bhutto had initiated this project in 1994, but successive governments ignored it.

“Credit goes to President Zardari for revival of the project,” Raja Ashraf added.

Summing up the post-2008 general election situation, he again praised President Zardari for taking all parties along and cobbling together a coalition government. “PPP needs no lessons on politics and democracy as examples of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto are before us. Every member of the party has suffered and given sacrifices in the struggle for democracy,” Raja Ashraf said.

“For us there is no other way but to pursue the path of democracy which comes through elections and holding free, fair and transparent elections is the right of people.”

The prime minister said the People’s Party believed in fair and transparent election because the nation had always voted for PPP despite character-assassination of its leadership.

“Now is the time to tolerate each other and carry forward the message of love and respect as hatred has not given us anything.”

Raja Pervez Ashraf announced a grant of Rs 200 million for electrification of villages and asked the Sindh government to set up information technology centres in every town.

QAIM ON JUDICIARY: Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah thanked Dr Mubarakmand for working on the Thar pilot project and for seeing to it that 83 per cent of jobs went to locals.

Mr Shah made a veiled criticism of the judiciary, saying it did not realise that “the prime minister is the elected representative of 180 million people”.

“The judiciary’s decisions in the past were regrettable and again efforts are being made to harm democracy.”

Mr Shah said democracy should not be derailed as it was vital to the country’s progress.

Provincial Information Minister Sherjeel Memon, Senator Gul Mohammad Lot and MNA Dr Mahesh Mallani also spoke on the occasion.

Chief Secretary Raja Muhammad Abbas highlighted the potential of Thar coal in battling the energy crisis.

Ejaz Ahmad, Secretary of the Coal & Energy Department, gave a briefing about the companies which were developing three blocks in Thar coal field.

The project will generate 2100 megawatt of electricity.

Dr Mubarakmand said his team had demonstrated that coal gassification can be used for power generation and other uses like production of diesel, methanol and urea.

In reply to a question by the prime minister, Dr Mubarakmand said one ton of coal produced one megawatt of electricity per hour. The average cost of power from UCG is two to three cents per unit while for a 100mw project its cost is expected to be four to five cents per unit.

Capital expenditure on a UCG power station inclusive of gassifiers is $ 1.2 per wt, the lowest for any production plant.

Dr Mubarakmand said two German scientists had developed a process to convert coal gas into diesel or methanol. This process was now being used for commercial purposes, recalling that a South African company was producing 160,000 barrels of diesel per day at an average price of $ 30 per barrel.

Dr Mubarakmand, addressing apprehensions expressed by MNA Dr Khatumal Jeevan, said there was neither any danger of water contamination from gasification nor of environmental pollution.

Thar project is nation
 
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I did say that one does not have to agree with the writer. Nevertheless, it must be said that so far all we have heard is talk.

I was a great fan of Dr Mubarakmand; however I was shocked see him on the TV when he did not reject the Water Car outright as Dr Atta ur Rahman did. I feel Dr Mubarakmand is now becoming more of a politician which is a blemish on his otherwise excellent record.

I wish with all my heart that UCG process is successful and it points the way towards sorting out Pakistan’s energy problems for a long time to come.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating. Only time will tell if Dr Mubarakmand is correct or the critics of the project such as the mining engineer Shahid Ali Baig
 
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