Integrated Development Of Both Conventional And Unconventional Coal Fuels In India

Abstract

The world energy demand is mostly driven by coal. The rising oil prices, mature stage of oil fields with increasing cost in exploration and production of petroleum resources have further fuelled the interest towards integrated studies of coal fuels i.e. Coal, Coal Bed Methane (CBM), Coal to Gas (Underground coal Gasification), Coal to liquid (CTL), Coal Mine Methane (CMM) etc. Prospective coal deposits in India mostly occur in: i) Gondwana lying along five major tectonic lineaments i.e. Damodar- Koel, Wardha- Godavary, Pench- Kanhan, Tawa valley and Rajmahal area; ii) Tertiary coal deposits in Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh; and iii) lignite deposits   of Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, the total coal –fuels resources in India are much greater than present conventional approach which permits only utilization of coal from mineable depth.  It is rational to view all coal-fuels such as CBM, UCG, CTL and CMM etc for meeting challenges of increasing energy demand in India. The paper presents and discusses an overview of integrated development of coal fuels in India and their resources assessment.