esi prospects, page-13

Lautrec.

Firstly, i am not so sure that the others are or should be thought of as psuedo-competitive with ESI, which was really the main point of my post.

Secondly, I was trying to point out that Coldry product doesn't leach out the salts. Note however that LaTrobe Valley coals are low % fouling salts and low ashing to begin with.

Therefore in a boiler/application using a dried product that is leached compared with an unleached (Coldry) product then the leached product is slightly better as is fouls more slowly. All else kept constant, esp cost, hardness and lump size.

Lastly, the materials in the effluent streams of most of these drying technologies are salts and ashes, not the volatiles - which are both nasty and hard to remove. Treatment is therefore (relatively) chemically simple and low cost.

The exception to this comment is the sulphurs in the Anglesea deposit, which is a distraction to this discussion as it is dedicated to Alcoa. Removal of these is chemically simple but expensive in energy and material etc etc etc.

Regards

f111