Sunday Times 2
“Clean coal” is neither clean nor cheap
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Honourable Minister,
The proposed “ Clean Coal “ power plant can only reduce the coal used to generate a unit of electricity by about 14% by operating at very high pressures and temperatures.
This will increase the capital cost of the plant by at least 100% and also the Operation and Maintenance costs significantly.
There is no clean coal produced anywhere I the world. Coal form any source will come with the many pollutants
All that can be done is to trap the pollutants, Sulfur, mercury and other heavy metals from the exhaust chimney and return them to the cooling water or the ground. These will remain forever in the Sri Lanka eco system. This is in addition to what is already being released by the 900 MW coal plant.
If a 500 MW clean coal power plant is operated it will generate and release to the Sri Lankan environment annually the pollutants, which will continually accumulate in the Sri Lankan Environment. Please see the table.
We appeal to you to object vehemently to this disastrous proposal.
Eng Parakrama Jayasinghe
Past President, Bio Energy Association
of Sri Lanka