Block 5 to start producing electricity in December

Dr Samar Mubarakmand has entered the race to find a permanent solution to the looming energy crisis.

KARACHI: Dr Samar Mubarakmand, the man who played an instrumental role in strengthening Pakistan’s defence capabilities by working on missile and nuclear technology, has entered the race to find a permanent solution to the looming energy crisis.

Member of the Planning Commission and incharge of Block 5 of the Thar coal fields Dr Mubarakmand revealed that work had started on the pilot project to produce 100 megawatts (MW) of electricity in Block 5 of the Thar coal fields. If the trial is successful, production capacity of the project could be increased to 1,000 MW.

In an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune, he explained that underground gasification technology would be used to generate electricity from Thar coal. Through this technology, coal would be burned underground to create gas which would then be used to produce electricity. The gas could be used to power large electricity producing turbines and generators.

Dr Mubarakmand claimed that Pakistani scientists and experts had complete access to this technology. “If our scientists can make atom bombs and world class missiles, why can’t they produce electricity from coal?” he questioned.

It was claimed that since the gas produced would be colourless, there was no chance of it containing carbon. He further clarified that since the coal is in powder form, burning it would result in carbon free gas. This meant that it would not harm the environment in any way. Furthermore, due to underground gasification no ash or waste would be released into the air.

The World Bank (WB) had objected to the production of gas through underground gasification on the basis that it would be detrimental to the environment and pulled back its funding from the Thar coal project.

In order to address their concerns, the WB team was briefed on the benefits of underground gasification and how the extraction process would be completed in an environment friendly manner.

He said that Pakistani scientists possessed exceptional capabilities and urged the government to organise a national conference of scientists so that ideas could be exchanged on how to extract mineral resources.

He compared the coal project with the national nuclear programme in terms of national pride and said that the success of the pilot would be a big step towards self sufficiency.

All technology to be used will be from local areas and only the power generators would have to be imported from abroad. He said that the entire project, including monitoring, would be computerised. These computerised systems were being designed by the same experts who work on Pakistan’s defence system.

The federal and provincial governments are seriously considering the proposal and are keen to implement it as soon as possible.

It is expected that mining for the 100 MW pilot project will be started soon and that the price of gas produced in Thar will be equivalent to the gas coming from Sui.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2010.