Mechanised Blending of Coal at MCHP, PPT

Paradip(INS): Paradip Port Trust has made a paradigm shift on 06.11.18 by introducing shiploading of 20,112MT of blended coal in the vessel M.V Diamond Star containing high grade coal of ECL(G4 grade)with low grade coal of MCL(G12 grade) at the ratio of 35%:65%to achieve a higher GCV suitable for Vallure Thermal power station of M/s NTECL.

Thermal power plants blend high grade coal with low grade coal to achieve the intended Gross Calorific Value(GCV) at the power plant end. Mostly the high grade coal is imported from Indonesia. In India high grade coal with high GCV is available in ECL,CCL & SECL as against abundance supply of low grade coal from MCL. Possibly for the first time in India, two different grades of domestic coal were blended at a Port to achieve the same effect of blending with imported coal. This would be in the direction of import substitution of Indonesian coal and will go a long way in saving precious foreign exchange for the country.

In the blending process carried out at the Mechanised Coal Handling Plant of PPT, 02 different grades of coal from different collieries were homogeneously blended by mechanised process. Re-circulation of high grade coal from Stackyard through Reclaimers & low grade coal unloaded directly from wagons will pass through a common junction house to form blended coal as per the desired ratio.

                This blending process at MCHP, PPT has the following advantages:-

• Homogeneous blending to ensure the blend remains consistent.
• Controlled automated blending system by programmable logic control to maintain accurate blending ratio.
• Creation of Thermal Coal hub for availability of desired grade of blended coal on F.O.B basis.
• Reduction in inventory cost of Thermal Power Plants.
• Import Substitution resulting in substantial savings of Foreign Exchequer.
• Major activities of Thermal Power Plant i.e handling of different grade of Thermal Coals, blending operation can be eliminated there by saving on time & cost.
• No additional cost for blending operations resulting in reduction of generation cost.

Mechanised coal handling plant (MCHP) of PPT commissioned in Sept. 2001 is one of the premier bulk material handling system in Asia. The plant is equipped with state of the art technology and serves the purpose of exporting thermal coal to the power plants in southern India.  Since inception, the plant has achieved many milestones in operational parameters like high berth productivity, minimum turn-around time of vessels which are at par with international standards Further dual loading of vessels using two shiploaders simultaneously is one of the major achievements of the plant.