ECT Welcomes Vic Govt Brown Coal Initiative

On Thursday 14 January, the State Government of Victoria announced the establishment of an independent company - "Brown Coal Innovation Australia" - which will manage the $16 million brown coal research and development initiative announced in August 2009.

ECT Chief Executive, Mr Kos Galtos, said his company now looked forward to working with BCIA, saying a co-ordinated approach would help achieve the best environmental outcomes while maintaining energy security for Victoria.

ECT is in the process of commercialising its revolutionary brown coal drying, or Coldry, technology.

"We have been grateful for the support the Government has shown the Industry to date," he said.

"We received $239,000 from Sustainability Victoria in 2007 toward the $2M development cost of incorporating water recovery into our Coldry Pilot Plant.

"While ECT is moving rapidly toward our first commercial scale export plant here in Victoria, (to be located next to Loy Yang A power station), we believe BCIA could assist in developing a co-operative approach, bringing together complementary technologies that may achieve a near-zero emission solution for lignite-fired power generation."

Mr Galtos conceded there was no "silver bullet" to tackle the problem of carbon emissions, but said ECT was committed to effect positive, incremental environmental improvement.

"We believe emission reduction from lignite-fired power generation needs to be tackled on three fronts: the lignite must be dried in the most environmentally friendly manner possible, power stations must maximise efficiency and carbon capture and storage schemes need to understand that dried lignite will minimise CO2 emissions, driving down CCS cost."

ECT's Coldry technology is a pre-combustion solution that improves brown coal quality BEFORE its burned in power stations.

Mr Galtos said the Coldry technology could immediately reduce the carbon footprint of existing lignite power stations by 10 per cent and allowed for the deployment of proven, highly efficient black coal based power stations that would emit up to 45% less CO2 than existing lignite-fired plants.

For Further Information Contact:

Kos Galtos - Chief Executive+61 3 9909 7684 or [email protected]