CoalTech, an engineering company focussing on environmental solutions for the mining industry, and having initially launched their proven pelletising technology at the 2016 Mining Indaba, has announced that it has supplemented its pelletising technology with a process to dry and cure the pellets thus produced.

The recently commissioned pelletising and curing plant, situated near Witbank in Mpumulanga, South Africa, is sized to produce 10,000 t/month of coal pellets.. CoalTech’s pellets have been thoroughly tested over the past four years and verified to meet industry requirements by Bureau Veritas.

The final South African patent application has been lodged, and patent applications are now being lodged in various other countries around the globe where CoalTech plans to exploit its technology. CoalTech is now ready to commence the construction of scaled up plants with higher production capacity to meet customers’ requirements. Mining and coal processing companies in South Africa have already expressed their interest in building plants which would process over 450,000 t/month of coal pellets.

The company has received expressions of interest from potential customers in Europe, North America and Asia. This technology can provide a new source of energy to generate electricity and create local jobs. In addition, the technology will have a positive impact on the environment through the conversion of waste material into energy on a cost-effective basis.

“Since the last Mining Indaba in 2016, we have now dealt with one of the significant issues which faced many who have tried to develop this technology before us – an effective and economical solution to drying the upstream and downstream product was necessary in order to take the CoalTech technology to the next level – to enhance production from the proven smaller quantities, to an industrial scale where large quantities of pellets can now be produced and handled without losing their shape or bonding together.

“Not only has CoalTech proven what we promised – that coal fines can be effectively and economically agglomerated into coal pellets with all the properties necessary for transportation storage and energy production – but we have now solved the issue of producing and drying large quantities of pellets while maintaining their final form at the end of the production run. Furthermore, we have also done this in a way which is both efficient and economical by using existing coal fines waste material in the curing and drying process.

“We are now ready to build industrial plants in South Africa and further afield.” said Filippo Fantechi, President of CoalTech.

Globally, the increased cost of coal extraction, enhanced environmental concerns regarding the release of CO2, and diminishing vacant land for mine waste deposits, has led to a major challenge for the mining industry. The un-utilised coal fines of an estimated 30,000 Mt worldwide, can be reused with the environmental friendly CoalTech technology, enhancing productivity of mines by up to 20% and securing higher returns on investment for mining companies.

CoalTech’s technology creates value by:

• Creating a commercially and industrially viable pelletized coal product from previously unusable materia
• Reducing the environmental impact of coal industry waste
• Eliminating the storage and operational costs of the coal waste lagoons
• Reducing restoration costs and rehabilitation of slurry lagoons at the mine’s end of life.

CoalTech is an engineering company with a presence in South Africa, the USA and the Middle East. The company’s mission is to build and operate industrial scale plants using its patented technology to tackle one of the key challenges of the mining industry – to address the coal fines waste issue with an economically viable technological solution.