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Arnold Mutemi Business Editor
Fertiliser manufacturing company Sable Chemicals is talking to foreign banks to provide $700 million needed for the establishment of a coal gasification plant at its Kwekwe factory, Chemplex Corporation chief executive Mr Misheck Kachere has said.In an interview in Bulawayo last week, he said designs for the plant, expected to eliminate Sable’s huge electricity bill, had already been done. Sable Chemicals is an associate company of Chemplex Corporation.
Sable Chemicals currently uses electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water for the manufacture of ammonia, a process which consumes a lot of electricity. Ammonia is used to make ammonium nitrate fertiliser.
However, Mr Kachere said producing hydrogen from coal would mean that the plant would now be able to generate its own electricity, with surplus available for sell to the national grid.
“Sable will be self-sufficient in energy and release surplus into the national grid,” he said.
Mr Kachere said no local bank could provide the kind of funding needed to build the gasification plant.
“We have talked to major banks from China. The project cannot be funded locally,” he said.
Mr Kachere said if funding was secured, the coal gasification plant could be in operation by 2017 as it would take three years to set up.
He said about three million tonnes of coal would be required annually to run the plant. He said while initially the plant would just provide hydrogen, it could also be upgraded to provide organic chemicals and fuel.
He said the South African company, Sasol, uses the same technology to produce fuel. Mr Kachere said they had identified the coalfields of Sengwa in Gokwe as a suitable source of the coal since they were the nearest to Kwekwe.
He said while coal bed methane gas could also be used, there was no proof of the extent of the gas reserves in the country. Mr Kachere said the coal gasification project would change the face of Kwekwe as several developments would take place including the creation of downstream jobs.
In Gokwe, the huge demand for coal would result in the creation of new jobs at the coal fields where no meaningful mining is taking place at the moment.
Sengwa coal mine, owned by Rio Tinto Zimbabwe, was developed to supply coal to a thermal power station which was supposed to be built in the area. However, the project never got off the ground.
Mr Kachere said coal would be hauled from the mine to Kwekwe using road trains, similar to the ones used by platinum miner Zimplats to carry ore from its mines to the processing plant.
Road trains were first introduced to Zimbabwe by Zimplats. The abnormal load trucks are 40m long and weigh 152 tonnes, with three trailers.
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