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Indo-Japan pact on clean coal research
JANUARY 22: India and Japan recently signed an agreement on joint research on eco-friendly and more efficient coal preparation technologies for use in both countries. Under the agreement, signed by Central Fuel Research Institute (CFRI), Dhanbad, and Japan Coal Energy Centre (JCOAL) in the presence of R A Mashelkar, director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), technologies would be developed to realise environmental preservation and to supply `clean coal' to users. Run-of-mine coal can no longer be used as it is. It needs to be processed by suitable techniques to make it a marketable product. Proper processing increases coal's efficiency and consequently reduces the consumption volume, experts said.The need for processing has become even more important in the light of a ministry of environment and forests (MEF) rule under which, by June 2001, all mined coal has to be prepared before industrial use to reduce the pollution. The agreement would help India in building washeriesfor coal preparation as Japan has `excellent' coal enrichment and preparation technology, which could be used to make Indian coal green, CFRI director Kalyan Sen said. Japanese technology needs 350 gm of coal to generate one unit of electricity, whereas NTPC uses 650 gm of coal to do the same, he said. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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