UK-headed renewable energy, forestry management, and timber processing business Active Energy Group Plc (AEG) has announced that it has signed a joint venture agreement (JVA) with Cobant Sp. z o.o. (Cobant), a Polish research, development and coal recovery/production company active in the land reclamation, environmental services, and energy sectors. The JVA aims to explore opportunities to commercialise AEG's proprietary CoalSwitch additive in blends with reclaimed coal from coal slurry dumps.
According to a statement, the JVA with Cobant follows recent testing of AEG’s CoalSwitch coal additive in blends with reclaimed coal from coal slurry waste dumps, located in Upper Silesia, Poland. A series of tests were conducted between October 2017 and February 2018, whereby CoalSwitch was fired together with blends of coal fines, the results of which exceeded the expectations of both AEG and Cobant’s management teams.
Detailed and varied tests demonstrated outperformance over all other options tested by Cobant over the past three years, in various concentrations with 15 percent CoalSwitch and 85 percent Bytom – a city in southern Poland – coal being the most efficient and allowing for zero chemical binder requirement on reclaimed coal fines reconstitution.
Our cooperation enables the opportunity to use waste coal accumulated in the coal slurry waste dumps to become valuable feedstock, and this should offer a real alternative for the power industry in Poland and throughout Europe. Poland is historically bound to coal so it is a complete reversal and refocus on new fuel sources would be extremely difficult to implement. However, new generation coal fuels similar to the one we have developed together with Active Energy, create a solution to this “Gordian Knot” by offering new “Super Fuel” which is innovatively formed between coal and biomass. This has significant implications for the economy and the environmentally friendly use of coal in Poland, including significantly reducing smog, said Pawel Woszczyk, CEO, Cobant.
The objective of the JVA is to produce a new ‘Super Fuel’ product, utilising a CoalSwitch component, produced from sawmill waste and forestry residue, combined together with reclaimed and cleaned coal fines from Upper Silesias’ many historical coal waste dumps, processed through Cobant’s own patented coal waste reclamation technology.
Poland’s coal industry lies at the centre of the Polish identity, however, it is considered to be one of the most polluting coal-burning countries in Europe. The Group’s objective with this JVA with Cobant is to support this significant industry and regional employer in its efforts to meet its emissions targets and clean air requirements, whilst finding a use for their legacy and arising coal waste in a ‘Super Fuel’ blend. Both Active Energy and Cobant believe this can be achieved by reconfiguring the feedstock of coal power plants to maximise output and enabling power plant operators to achieve their green credentials, whilst beating the mandated emission reduction targets set out by the European Union for 2020 and targeting the more ambitious targets for 2030. Our recent conversations with power plant operators and government agencies in Poland have demonstrated all parties’ eagerness to adopt cleaner energy protocols, said Richard Spinks, CEO, AEG.
The intention is to roll out product to other coal-fired power plants and for household use, initially in Poland, although significant opportunity is recognised across the CEE and EU member countries where residual coal waste can also be found adjacent to coal-fired power plants.
AEG believes its CoalSwitch has the potential to act globally not only as an emissions reductant but as a sulphur capture and reduction compound. In addition, chemical binders, which have traditionally been used in the global reclaimed coal reclamation sector, are no longer required when utilising CoalSwitch pellets. Moreover, some additional savings are possible for power plant operators, as usage of this new alternative coal fuel does not require such intensive desulphurisation and the fuel has lower ash content.
The timing for the introduction of this new “Super Fuel’ in Poland is beneficial. New legislation is being prepared by the Polish government banning usage of low-quality solid fuels for individual use. We predict a significant market opportunity in traditional coal uses in Poland with the introduction of our new “Super Fuel” based on our own local coal resources processed and enriched by CoalSwitch, ended Pawel Woszczyk.
