New Delhi : Scores of clean coal technologists from Canada and India converge here in the Capital next Tuesday (December 4, 2012) to mull strategies for reducing carbon emissions during power generation.

In a first of its kind Initiative by the Academy of Engineering, from both Canada and India, the technologists would focus on sharing their latest findings in this space as also exploring potential partnership areas. The Canadian Academy of Engineering delegation will be led by Prof. Ravi Ravindran of Ryerson University, Canada

Dr B Prasada Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of BHEL will kick off this day-long conference at India International Center, New Delhi.  The conference is being hosted by Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), as part of INAE’s silver jubilee celebrations.

Mr Shyam Saran, who served as Special Envoy on Climate Change to the Prime Minister of India, will deliver the valedictory address.

A panel of eminent Indian experts from coal R&D, industry and government as well as non-governmental agencies will interact with the members of both delegations to identify areas suitable for Indo-Canadian Joint initiatives and the nature of such initiatives.

Dr K V Raghavan, INAE Distinguished Professor at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad who will lead the Indian team said, “Coal being the premier source of energy for power generation, in both India and Canada, there are common environmental concerns arising from large scale coal processing.”

“A typical 500 megawatt coal based power plant is estimated to emit three million tons of carbon dioxide annually and its recovery and usage is a huge technological challenge,” added Dr Raghavan who also serves as the Vice President of the 25-year old Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Even though, India is the world’s third largest producer of coal with 93 billion tonnes of recoverable resource, its high ash content is the main bottleneck for several application areas.  India is, therefore, importing good quality coal from other countries. India has over 200 coal based thermal power plants while Canada has around 50.

Dr Baldev Raj, President, INAE will co-chair the penultimate session dedicated to India Canada joint initiatives, with Mr Shyam Saran.

India and Canada have made extensive plans to promote R&D and scale-up clean coal technologies and commercial deployment. The Indo-Canadian joint conference has identified several areas to address in this day-long session. The subjects to be covered range from coal beneficiation, gasification, combustion and liquefaction to carbon dioxide capture, recovery and utilization of coal bed methane.

A series of presentations will update the attendees on the technology development, progress in deployment and generation of new knowledge in the respective countries.