Coal India's Journey toward Sustainability
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Case Code: SUST027 Case Length: 12 Pages Period: 2016-2017 Pub Date: 2018 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.400 Organization: Coal India Limited Industry: Mining Countries: India Themes: Corporate Responsibility, Environmental Sustainability |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Excerpts
Value Chain of Coal and its Impact on Environment
Coal extracted from coal reserves ended up as fuel in thermal power plants or as raw material in the steel, fertilizer and cement industries. Various activities throughout the value chain of coal beginning from identifying coal reserves till the end user stage resulted in different types of pollution. Experts estimated various emissions from thermal plants in India and reported that carbon dioxide emission was at 499 Mt/year, sulphur dioxide was at 3840 Kt/year and nitrogen oxide was at 1539 Kt/year . But, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), coal played a major role in meeting the energy requirement of the economy. Therefore, it is essential to mine it in a responsible way to reduce its harmful impact on the environment...
Step I: Identifying and Clearing Coal Reserves for Mining
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDI) were the two primary entities involved in identifying the coal reserves in India. GSI estimated that India possessed 301.5 billion tons of coal deposits spread across the seven states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra...
Step II: Mining
The technical and economic feasibility study of coal mines helped in determining which type of mining method was to be applied to extract coal. The coal mining process steps compromised drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, transportation and washing. The method of mining used depended on what type of mine it was. Underground mines used blasting technology where as open cast mines used continuous miner technology...
Step III: End Use
Coal was used as fuel in thermal plants and as a raw material in the cement and steel industries...
Sustainability Initiatives
The sustainable initiatives of CIL were broadly classified into environmental, economic, and social initiatives...
Looking Ahead
CIL had embraced sustainable practices but a lot more needed to be done to reach a milestone. It could adopt other practices like coal preparation instead of coal washing or beneficiation, where raw coal was cleansed using different physical processes with or without chemicals including water. This process would increase the caloric value of the coal and reduce the ash content. Fuel gas desulfurization technology reduced sulfur oxide emission from the coal mine. It could use lime or limestone as a chemical absorbent to capture sulfur oxide which would reduce its emissions...
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Energy Mix of India
Exhibit II: CIL's Production and Manpower Distribution
Exhibit III: Types of Coal Produced by CIL
Exhibit IV: Value Chain of Coal
Exhibit V: Coal Mining Types and Technologies Used by CIL
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