bcia coal drying and handling seminar and expo, page-15

Was interesting to read what others had to say about the BCIA expo on Monday. I spoke with a friend who was in attendance on the day and here's what went down (seems I share a friend with a former HC member).


"Dr Phil Gurney

First up, BCIA welcomed a new member - Mantle Mining! This is interesting because mantle is a resources company, rather than being a tech company like other BCIA members (ignite, ECT. JCSteele, HRL Tech etc). I imagine Mantle or BCIA will announce this?

Speakers:

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Dr Fedir Woskoboeno from HRL Germany

A lot of overburden with German lignite.

He showed a BC Tech Table – it showed some proven BC techs. the table listed Exergen as close to commercialisation, listed Coldry under R&D
Mentioned solar drying tried in LV but too much rain.
Mentioned that evaporative drying briquettes around since 1959
Logistics from LV per tonne –
Truck to port $40
Port handling costs $25
Ship to China $45
+ port handling costs and transport within China

No coal terminal in Vic yet – huge cost to come?

Big problems shipping briquettes, requires smaller ships with sealed holds and special inert gas to pump into tank to keep from igniting

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Prof. Robin Batterham from University of Melbourne

Shale gas coming to Australia in big way. Will be expensive compared to BC because will be priced at international market price - Gas 4.8c/mj , BC 1c/mj
Carbon price only 50/50 so don’t rely on carbon credit in your business plan
Coal drying techs suffer from being expensive and slow
Exergen tech looks very good but caution needed due to use of heat at depth and close to water aquifers.

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Dr Andrew Hoadley from Monash University

Spoke about Lignite handling
Mentioned ECT had part funded research.
Said there were no simple answers.

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Mr Ashley Moore from Environmental Clean Technologies

He started by saying Coldry was a zero emission tech but then during the presentation mentioned it uses 113kw of electricity to produce 1 tonne of BCE product. He was questions about this during his question time on whether that was really 'zero emission'?. He said words to the effect that “there is no magic solution”.

He mentioned ARUP, Loy Yang and Mc Dow during preso but made no mention of funding deals, offtake, MOU’s etc.

Water recovery expensive and won’t be used at demo as LV has plenty of water. But would be applicable to India, China etc..
Past pilot stage.
DFT completed in approx 3 months.
Construction tender to follow.
Loy yang has enough waste heat for 20mill tpa plant + extra sources available at site.
Construction 2014 demo plant
Need demo plant completed and tested before can attract investment for commercial rollout after 2017
Vic, india,china, Mongolia (some probs with coal) Europe and Indonesia all target markets

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Mr Slade Wormington from Exergen

Exergen intends to supply asian/Indian markets and become a major resource company ater listing on the ASX later in 2013.

Large throughput very economical.

500tph through 800mm diameter autoclave. Diameter doesn’t need to increase much for much larger throughput due to cylindrical volume physics.

Decarboxylation is key.

Pumpable slurry Coal delivers greater energy content than evaporative technology.

Slurry pieline to large super oil tanker mean no transport combustion issue.

Very small energy footprint due to heat exchange and small pump needed to maintain pressure at depth.

Exergen are happy to specialise and will outsource to complimentary tech’s. Ie gasification, briquetting, ash removal etc..

Big cost savings in shipping large quantity slurry to India with final processing over there. Cheaper construction and labour costs over there etc.

Exergen CHTD is an idal fuel source for the CSIRO DICE technology.

$40-50mill invested so farl from golbal scale CSI’s who are committed to proving tech and signing off take agreements.

Energy brix demo plant to be constructed in 2014 and to run long enough to perfect and learn. Prove up Partner/outsourced techs along the way.

Commercial plant construction targetted to commence in 2016.

MOU with EBAC for coal for demo. Build resource portfolio over time.

Demo plant at Morwell will cost $5mill per year to operate.

Working on a new tech for briquette.

Partnering/research with White Energy, HRL and Koeppem

World leader at large scale with global patents.

Exergen process is ideal for stranded coal resources.

Lots of options for commercialisation.

World class management team.

Clear pathway through to commercialisation.

Product cost through demo stage estimated at $50-60 per tonne. Product cost at commercial scale estimated at only $20/t.

Cost of water treatment built into demo cost.

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Ms Kate McCowan from JC Steele and Sons

Working with ECT and said she was 'keen to hear from others'.

She said Coldry is a very technical process to make pellets due to exact moisture level required. If too wet it liquefies in press. If too dry other problems arise . 1% either way can make a difference.

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Mr Chris Johnston from GHD

Stated he was doing a sales pitch for LV coal.
He thanked Slade for the quality of his presentation.
He said 'you will probably hear me repeating things Slade said as Exergen is the benchmark'.
He then spoke about what is needed from a Gov perspective to gain confidence in a proposal.
5 key things to look at “as Slade said” (his words):

Level of R&D completed – lessons learnt

Project – site – confirmation – geotech – stakeholders

Approval process – council/gov – community consultation – compliance

Finance – design – partner agreements ”signed on dotted line” – EPC contracts – preliminary design ”can’t go to gov without it and be taken seriously” – Auditing,cost control etc.

Industrial relations management – design auditing – independent review – lobbying
Risk management – properly assess risks – make sure upgradeable without issues

Need a clear target market without generalisation

Clear business case

Appropriate resource and location

He said both demo’s and commercial plants needed to allow 12-18 months for full approval process.

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Jan Wolfe, WTA Coal drying tech, RWE Power International, RE GmbH

Biggest in Germany, 100mtpa power plant
Fluidised bed drying with waste heat.
20% energy lost in Evap process
Commercial since 2009, 110tpday
Perfected in 2012 and patents lodged

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Dr Len Humphreys from Ignite Energy

(Couldn’t work out if these guys want ALDP funding or not?)

Impressive LV story:

16bill tonne BC JORC resource (next door to MNM's LV tenements)
Exxon partners in CSG expolration
Licella & norske partners in bio mass
Looking for partner for BCE using ignite resources drying tech
1tonne BC = 400L crude and 180KG dry coal

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Mr Mark Frecheville from Torreco

Pilot produces 35kg product per hour

Mr Shigeru Kinoshita, Kobe Steel

$20bill market cap
Already commercial
Make dried BC and steel
Demo plant in indo

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Dr Nawshad Haque from CSIRO Process Science and Engineering

Just talked about importance of carbon footprint when considering techs

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Dr Arash Tahmasebi, visiting research fellow from the Key Laboratory of Advanced Coal and Coking Technology of Liaoning Province at the USTL, China

Spoke about Microwave drying but was difficult to follow.

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Mr Rohan Zauner, Sinclair Knight Merz

His background is assessing these types of projects having done due diligence on projects ranging from $100mills to $bills

His list of must haves for a BC export project–

Revenue – long term sales agreements

Capex figures

Opex figures

Performance must be attainable ie throughput

Financial parameters

Economic parameters

Triple bottom line very important

Material risk assessment

Construction guarantees

Environmental issues under control

Operational experience

Long term off take – robustness of deal - credibility of partner – specific terms of deal – he said “it's no good having a $2bill off take agreement with a $2 company”

Must be accountability for non delivery through asset realisation

Multi uses for product

Competitive advantage –“ no good if could be phased out”

Need coal reserves, cost performance and program guarantees,
Low probability high risk no good

Dependant on infrastructure? Not just on site but off site. Rail, port etc..

His conclusion was – ‘small companies just cannot do it, too expensive and too much risk”

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Mr Rod Touzel from Great River Energy & Worley Parsons

Great River Energy working with Loy Yang and trying to get its tech into there.
$2bill/year revenue in Minnesota
Fluidised bed with waste heat.
Working with Global CCS Institute and Mitsubishi Carbon Capture on project with Loy yang and Tru Energy.

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End of conference"