MechChem Africa January-February 2025

During December 2024, FutureCoal Limited, a global alliance for sustainable coal, published a Roadmap for a Sustainable Coal Value Chain, which highlights the role of modern coal technologies in delivering global cli mate goals while continuing to foster socio-economic growth. A combination of advanced coal technologies, the report argues, can reduce up to 99% of the emis sions associated with its use, including CO 2 emissions, while continuing to support the growth aspirations of developing and emerging economies. Key report findings include: • Emission reductions from high-efficiency low emissions (HELE) coal plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies could reduce emissions from power plants by up to 1 412 Mt of CO 2 per year, equivalent to removing 310-560-million SUVs from global roads. • Replacing lower efficiency coal plants with ultra-supercritical plants could inject over US$1.5-trillion into the global economy. In contrast, replacing these with alternative and renewable energy plants would cost an additional $2.7-trillion due to shortfalls in output. • Coal remains essential to key sectors, including steel (70% dependent), cement (90%), and alu minium (60%), while also producing cost-effective hydrogen and providing critical minerals such as copper, cobalt and nickel for renewable energy and battery storage systems. “This report challenges outdated views of coal, remind ing us that it is a versatile resource vital to modern life, industrial development and economic progress. Given the high-value of applications, strategic investments in advanced coal technologies ensures economic solu tions worldwide,” argues Paul Baruya, FutureCoal’s director of strategy and sustainability. The report underscores coal's positive impact on global communities, including job creation and provid ing essential resources for food security and infrastruc ture. It also calls for increased collaboration across the coal value chain to realise these opportunities through innovation and technology transformation. It challenges the notion of prematurely phasing out coal in favour of renewables alone. Instead, it explores how advanced technologies can be a linchpin in our journey towards a net-zero future. FutureCoal is underpinned by three Sustainable Coal Stewardship (SCS) principles that are founda tions for a suite of innovative sustainable business opportunities for the coal value chain. These commit FutureCoal members to advancing environmental and socioeconomic progress via initia tives that work in harmony to drive meaningful and responsible change. SCS has a strong focus on abated coal innova Coal and the path to sustainability

Peter Middleton

tion and technologies. This encompasses a range of responsible practices, including emissions controls, efficiency gains and adopting or upgrading to more advanced technologies. Three key components of SCS have been identified: pre-combustion; combustion and post combustion opportunities. Pre-combustion abatement opportunities are avail able to the upstream sector in the coal value chain and include efficient mining practices, digitalisation, waste management, renewable power, methane control, and management of surface subsidence, land disturbance and rehabilitation, among others. The range of efficient combustion technologies identified by FutureCoal include combined support for power and heat utilities to abate and capture up to 99% of emissions from power and heat generation plants. These include modern high-efficiency and low emissions (HELE) plants, such as ultra-super critical (USC); combined heat and power (CHP); electricity production from coal gasification and integrated gas ification in combined cycle (IGCC) plants; and co-firing boilers using combinations of coal and biomass. To best mitigate against emissions, these tech nologies must be combined with emission mitigation technologies such as flue gas desulphurisation (FGD), particulate matter control through electrostatic precipitators (ESP) and/or bag filters; low NOx sys tems; and carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) systems. Beyond the combustion opportunities for the coal value chain are novel business opportunities that transform coal into high-value products: Coal-to Liquids (CTL), synthetic liquid hydrocarbons, hydrogen, methanol, and agrichemicals, for example. Additionally, FutureCoal highlights that coal and coal waste form an ecosystem, offering secondary resources for valuable construction materials, such as the use of coal ash for fillers, cement, grouts and building blocks; and critical advanced coal-based minerals for the digitised future, such as graphene and carbon fibre. Rather than phasing out fossil fuels, which is a virtually impossible task for countries in the global South such as South Africa, FutureCoal advocates for a systematic phasing down of fossil fuel use. The report also highlights the potential effectiveness of upgrading existing coal assets on brownfield sites as a strategy for immediate CO 2 reduction, especially when compared to the replacement of these assets with greenfield renewable plants. While continuing to expand our fleet of cleaner and/ or renewable technologies and reducing coal use, we must also strive to optimise every aspect of the coal value chain, to immediately, steadily and permanently reduce CO 2 emissions. Both the planet and the lives of people all over the world are at stake.

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2 ¦ MechChem Africa • January-February 2025