Conserving Natural Resources Via Coal Substitution

Mauritius like many countries around the world is facing an increase for the demand in energy. The expected energy consumption for Mauritius in 2006 will be around 1800 GWh. In ten years time the energy consumption is expected to increase nearly 50%. To ensure the proper economic development of Mauritius it will be important for the country to seek less expensive fuels for the generation of electricity and process heat. This project is concerned with decreasing the use of coal in Mauritius for the generation of electricity and process heat. The actual consumption of coal for electricity production in Mauritius is around 20% and the consumption of heavy oil is 53%. With the constant increase of oil price the use of coal is expected to increase in Mauritius. The project is also about the current technologies such as fluidized bed combustion and also secondary fuels, which will become important for Mauritius in the future. The use of secondary fuels with coal is called co-combustion or co-firing. Bagasse is an important secondary fuel for Mauritius but there are other potential secondary fuels such as cane field residues C.F.R, refuse derived fuels R.D.F and used oil.