80,000 tons of coal briquettes to be produced in 2018 to combat pollution

Authorities expect 80,000 tons of coal briquettes, dubbed “improved fuel”, to be produced in 2018, well below the estimated 600,000 tons needed to replace raw coal. Deputy Mayor of Ulaanbaatar in charge of Environment and Green Development, J.Batbayasgalan reported that a 17 billion MNT improved fuel factory had commenced operations after a five year hiatus.

Cabinet made the decision to ban the burning of raw coal by May 2019 and intends to produce coal briquettes as an alternative. On average, a household uses five tons of raw coal in a year. As a result, the 214,000 households that burn coal for heating collectively use around 800,000 to one million tons of coal annually. Authorities believe 600,000 tons of improved fuel will be enough to replace the one million tons of raw coal. But in order to enforce the ban on burning raw coal, authorities are seeking to bring coal briquette factories into operation.

Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh has delegated the responsibility to several agencies to speed up the commencement of improved fuel production. The state-owned Tavan Togloi Fuel has been delegated the responsibility of establishing a factory capable of producing 200,000 tons of briquettes annually.

Meanwhile, a 17 billion MNT coal briquette factory that had been idle for five years has now started operations. Initially, the plant was supposed to produce 200,000 tons of coal briquettes annually but will not be able to do so this year, authorities say. Officials also say that they have reached an agreement to use the leftover washed coal that was not exported by Energy Resoures LLC to produce coal briquettes. J.Batbayasgalan reported that the company would be providing the excess coal free of charge.

The hope by authorities is that replacing raw coal with improved fuel will decrease air pollution and particulate matter of the pollution by 50 to 70 percent. Moving forward, Cabinet has said it will work to increase the production capacity of improved fuel to the estimated 600,000 tons needed to fully replace raw coal.