Prospects for Coal Briquettes as a Substitute Fuel for Wood and ...

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inner char is found that can be used as a smokeless fuel.
such a process can be seen for miles.
Smoke frm
The major difference introduced by -:he different types of feed coal used
in the industrial carbonization plants has to do with briquetting. The
bituminous and subbltuminous coals may only be crushed and sized, but
not briquetted prior to carbonlzation. Hwever, briquetting of the coal
or smokeless coal .fines may occur. Coal fines are briquetted with
molasses, bentonite (clay), or an inorganic binder by the Indians. Soft
coke fines may be briquetted with a starch binder. With the lignitic
coal sp briquetting prior to carbonization is performed. The producers
take advantage of the property of 1 ignite that allows it to be
briquetted without a binder. The briquetted form of the smokeless coal
output gives it a distinctive appearance. This allows it to be easily
distinguished from lump coalr so that it cannot be adulterated by
di shonest deal ers.
Profitability of the village coal pile and intermediate technology
producers is positive, if only marginal at times. Costs are reduced by
avoiding capital investment to recover by-products. The high technol ogy
producers must often operate unprofitably for seven, eight, or ten years
before reaching the break-even poi nt. The di ff icul ties that pl ague the
larger operations, in addition to higher costs, are irregular coal
suppl ies, transportation difficulties, power outages, labor probl cans$
and the inabil ity to sell by-products. A1 though high technol ogy
appl ications may be more prof itable in the long-run, Schwartz and Tatom
C161 recommend appl ication of intermed-l ate 1 eve1 s of technol ogy with
some by-product recovery for other developing countries. In this
fashion, sane of the risk of high technology plants as well as the
pol 1 ution probl ems of vent? ng by-products can be avoided.
B. INDIA HAS DEVELOPED A SMOKELESS COOKING STOVE WHICH CAN USE
RAW COAL AS A FUEL SOURCE WITH NO DETRIMENTAL HEALTH EFFECTS.
Finally, a technology unique unto itself has arisen fran the Indian
experience. Thls is the %smokeless cooking stove,'! which u5es raw coal
rather than smokeless coal as its initial fuel. It therefore cmpletely
avoids the cost of coal carbonization plants. Developed by the Indian
Central Fuel Research Institute (CFRI), the stove can be manufactured
for about 50 rupees (soft coke stoves cost approximately 30 rupee+--1982
rupees). Based on the savings of buying coal rather than smokeless
coal, the cost of the stove can be rfxovered in only a few months. This
Is based on a 1982 retail coal price in India of about 180 rupees per
tonne and the soft coke cost of about 720 rupees per tonne. Assuming a
family of five, which would use about a tonne of soft coke per year., a