Investor News

ECT attends Australia-Japan coal technology workshop

4th Annual Australia-Japan High-Level Group on Energy and Minerals

Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre this week played host to the Australia-Japan High-Level Group discussions on Energy and Minerals, a workshop that provides an opportunity for businesses and governments from both countries to discuss, review and advance various coal technologies.

As was the case when ECT attended this event last year, considerable focus was placed on the importance of brown coal, with several speakers highlighting Victoria's world-class reserves.

Japanese government leaders from METI, NEDO and JCoal, were in attendance, as were leaders from Australia's Federal and State government departments and organisations, including the CSIRO. Key to the discussion were representatives from private organisations, including Kawasaki, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Australian Coal Association and Brown Coal Innovation Australia.

Both ECT Chief Executive Kos Galtos and Coldry Business Manager Ashley Moore attended the event and engaged in a series of discussions on the benefits of Coldry.

A consistent theme that emerged across all proposals was the need for the advanced use of brown coal, and specifically the need to dry the coal prior to utilisation in high-efficiency power generation facilities to lower the CO2 emissions generated during the production of electricity.

Removing the physically and chemically trapped water from brown coal in a cost-effective manner is an ideal gateway to immediately deployable CO2 reduction processes such as Integrated Combined Cycle Gasification (IGCC) and Ultra Supercritical (USC) power generation technology, which can subsequently be retrofitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) systems for further CO2 abatement.

ECT's Coldry process is ideal for this purpose, using waste heat to cost-effectively dry brown coal to between 10% and 14%.

Chief Executive Kos Galtos highlighted the importance of our inclusion at the talks, firmly placing Coldry as part of the technology mix in the minds of Government and Industry:

"Coldry is being taken very seriously as a solution that can help retain Victoria's competitive advantage in the national electricity market while offering a front end solution to other technologies looking to create value".