DUSHANBE, October 30, 2008, Asia-Plus — Speaking to reporters on October 30, the deputy Dushanbe mayor, Rustam Rahmatov, said that the Dushanbe heat and power station will be launched on November 1.
According to him, the station will generate some 2.5 million kWh of electricity and 650 gigacalories of heat per day.
“The Dushanbe heat and power station is now capable to provide with heat and hot water some 1,300 buildings, which is 34.9 percent of the total number of buildings in the city,” the deputy said, noting that 950 buildings were provided with hot water and heat last year.
Rahmatov noted that the main problem facing the Dushanbe heat and power station was lack of natural gas. “Russian specialists have examined the station and proposed to use the water-coal fuel (WCF),” he said.
Water-coal fuel (WCF) is a liquid fuel made up of a fine-dispersive mixture of coal powder, water and plasticizer. The physical properties of WCF are the same as typical fuels used in fossil fuel fired heating stations. The physical and chemical properties of WCF bring about a high incineration efficiency of at least 95%. High incineration efficiency results in a lower cost price of 1Gcal of energy when compared to the incineration of original coal. In addition, thanks to a high utilization of the fuel, there is a vast reduction in the volume of atmospheric pollutants.
The deputy mayor noted that Barqi Tojik (Tajik electric systems) power holding, which in charge of the Dushanbe heat and power station, had already concluded a contract with one of Russian companies on providing the WCF technology. “In the near future, the Dushanbe heat and power station will receive equipment for producing water-coal fuel,” he said.
Meanwhile, the station will still work only on fuel oil because natural-gas prices are too high. They have stockpiled 20 tons of fuel oil so far.
