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Industry battling owing to lack of coal research laboratories and skills

15th March 2013

By: Yolandi Booyens

  

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Ongoing coal-quality issues have forced State-owned power utility Eskom to undertake extensive research in coal because its power stations are grappling for coal with highly variable qualities from a variety of sources, which affects power station performance and electricity output, states Fossil Fuel Foundation (FFF) director and industry stalwart Rosemary Falcon.

She notes that South Africa’s coal industry was in a stable condition during the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s owing to the low price of coal. Electricity costs were low and the economy was thriving because of the dominance by the gold sector.

“Eskom had an abundance of coal owing to ‘tied’ collieries. The coal fed to the utility was, therefore, relatively consistent in quantity and quality, requiring little need for research. Eskom’s own research started later, in 1990, when the Lethabo power station, near Vereeninging, in Gauteng, started having problems with the quality of the coal it was receiving,” states Falcon.

Exporting coal in the 1970s and 1980s was simply a case of washing the abundant Witbank No 2 Seam coal to produce a low-ash coal for export to Japan and a high-grade steam coal for export to the European Union.

“No difficulties were encountered and coal was sold according to price, not quality. South African export coal was always the lowest-priced product on the international market, which meant that technical research by producers was not necessary – and nor was it wanted – to persuade buyers to buy their coal,” she adds.

Further, no one wanted to identify with South African coal in the 1980s, owing to apartheid sanctions. As a result, coal was sold as ‘ex-Zimbabwe coal’ or ‘Mozambique coal’.

During the 1980s, there was a “quiet strength” in the coal industry, with several sound producer and user- and service-based companies, as well as good developmental activities.

However, during the early to mid-1990s, major research organisations and laboratories began closing down, coal exploration began to lag and investment in coal-related projects slowed dramatically.

Eskom sought permission to build new power stations, but, at that time, government preferred to consider independent power producers as an option to meet the demand for the country’s future energy shortfalls. This option did not materialise, however. Steel company Iscor changed hands and major coal and gold mining companies started to split, some of which reamalgamated, but many coal mines and projects were sold to other smaller companies.

Shortage of Laboratories

Falcon highlights that South Africa lacks a national research organisation that provides services for the coal industry, similar to the services provided by the previous National Institute of Coal Research (NICR) and the Transvaal Coal Owners Association (TCOA).

The NICR and the TCOA were the central hubs of research, investigation and application in all coal-related matters in the country.

Both organisations were forced to close down because of competition issues in the early 1990s and investment in coal-related projects began to dwindle as a result.

The NICR undertook all the research and developmental work regarding coal charac- terisation, beneficiation and use in South Africa. The only exceptions were steel company Iscor, now ArcelorMittal South Africa, and fuel giant Sasol, both of which did their own in-house research.

Major pilot-scale facilities were housed at the NICR for testwork in coal beneficiation plants, fluidised-bed combustion boilers and chemical coal-to-liquids topics, while spontaneous combustion tests were run through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

The NICR also produced bulletins with extensive data on mine locations, coal products and qualities, as well as production and sale statistics, which were of immeasurable value in the marketing and trading of coal in South Africa and abroad.

“None of these facilities remain today and no such national facility has yet been re-established,” Falcon emphasises.

The TCOA served the entire coal industry by providing an advanced analytical laboratory with sampling services, and an extensive marketing service whereby experienced coal technologists would handle the marketing of all the coal products produced by the major coal companies.

In addition, the TCOA advised consumers on the qualities of coals they required and provided technological advice on boiler or gasifier operations.

“This centralised service coordinated the industry in a streamlined, professional, trustworthy and effective manner. As soon as this association closed down, all coal producers, large and small, were obliged to market their own products or sell them to intermediaries, who traded products locally and abroad, some of whom lacked knowledge regarding the performance of the coals they sold,” Falcon explains.

“While a few laboratories have opened, none has the stature or experience that the TCOA and the NICR enjoyed in the past. The new laboratories simply provide analytical services. There is no national research organisation in any way similar to the NICR,” she notes.
Falcon highlights that, while larger organisations, such as Eskom and Sasol, have their own laboratories, these companies only undertake research for their own purposes.

She adds that the introduction over the past two decades of small or junior coal mining operations has resulted in the production of low tonnages from a wide variety of sources, often with widely varying qualities.

In contrast, a relatively few major coal mines producing large tonnages of quality consistent products existed from the 1970 to early 1990s. The current situation results in highly variable products being sold to Eskom and other coal-burning industries, which, in turn, results in often unstable technical performance and reduced efficiencies.

This has tended to hinder the development of the local coal industry and, indeed, is posing a threat to Eskom itself in that 40-million tons of coal a year over and above what is currently being produced is going to be required to meet the power generating needs of the country within the next decade, Falcon emphasises.


Skills Shortage

A lack of skills is still evident in the local coal industry, as experienced personnel are replaced by younger, often less experienced workers and qualified senior professionals cannot find jobs owing to employment legislation constraints.

“Attempts are being made to close the skills gap in the industry, but it may be too little, too late,” Falcon warns. Many organisations are reporting that they have near-to-retirement staff, with only inexperienced young graduates to replace them. Therefore, the skills gap is not being filled and it reflects the major loss of skills during the 1990s and early 2000s.

“Not one university in this country, or on this continent, provides in-depth specialised course options for coal-, oil-, gas- or energy-related topics at honours or undergraduate level,” Falcon notes. As a consequence, graduates are entering the coal-based industrial market more often than not ill prepared to meet the tasks that await them.

The University of the Witwatersrand, in association with the FFF, however, does offer a series of postgraduate one-week modular courses in a programme informally entitled ‘Leadership in Coal Carbon and Energy Technology”.

A wide selection of disciplines is covered, from coal sampling and quality assessment through geological exploration, beneficiation, combustion and power generation, conversion and gasification to coal and the environment and trade and marketing.

Universities changed the thrust of their under- graduate teaching syllabi in the engineering faculties from commodity-based to process- and modelling-based approaches during the 1990s.

This meant that coal, gold and other metals were not taught as subjects per se any longer and they were replaced by process and plant technologies, computer-based modelling and design-related topics.

“Therefore, graduates leaving universities were – and still are – having difficulty relating their learning to practical operations-based situations in the coal, gold and other mineral industries,” Falcon points out.
Graduates are unaware of what they do not know until they start working in the industry in a particular field of which they have no knowledge. All graduates, in whatever discipline, need extra training when they start working in industry, Falcon warns.

Not all companies, however, provide that training, she adds. “Many large mining companies used to have training centres where new staff would go for courses and would be exposed to a series of work experiences before starting in a specific sector of the company – many of these, if not all, have ceased to function.”

Falcon highlights that there are important indications that people are trying to gain exper- tise and redevelop the coal industry into one that can support a thriving coal-based economy once again, despite the dwindling high-grade coal reserves in the conventional mining areas around Witbank and future coal reserves being located in distant coalfields that are yet to be connected through rail to the industrial centres of the country.

Meanwhile, there are some key initiatives to rapidly enhance and grow the skills base through government- and Eskom-sponsored professorships in key disciplines at various universities in the country.

This will take effect at postgraduate level and will, of course, take time. Much adaptation to the South African scenarios has to take place, she concludes.

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

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