3. About Rampal Power Plant
- Is a proposed 1320 Megawatt Coal Fired Power Station
- 14 kilometers North of the Sundarbans
- Project area 1834 acres of land
- Bangladesh India joint venture on 50:50 equity basis
- The plant will need to import 4.72 million tons of coal per year
- The plant would draw 219,600 cubic meters of water every day
- Cost of building will be 2 Billion USD
- It will have 275 meters high chimney and Nox & Sox reduction
technology
4. Environmental Impact
- The plant would burn 5 million tons of coal every year which will be
the largest air pollutant in Bangladesh
- The emissions would elevate the levels of toxic particles, Sulphur dioxide
and nitrogen dioxide over the entire south-western Bangladesh and
100km to the northeast due to prevailing wind patterns.
- The affected areas would cover the entire Sundarbans ecosystem, Satkhira,
Khulna, Noakhali, Comilla, Narsingdi and Dhaka districts in Bangladesh and
Ashoknagar, Kalyangar, Basirhat and Kolkata of West Bengal
5. - Rampal plant would increase the 24-hour average ambient levels of
nitrogen dioxide in nearby localities up to 25 percent over the current
national urban average, and sulphur oxide levels up to 50 percent
over the urban average.
- The plant could emit high levels of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that
damages children's brains and nervous systems, and it could be
sufficient to render fish unsafe to eat over an area of approximately
70 sq.km around the power plant.
- Additionally, 10,000kg of mercury discharged over the life of the plant
could end up in the coal ash pond, which is subject to flooding and
poses further risks to aquatic food chain of the Sundarbans and Bay
of Bengal.
- Burning coal is a leading cause of smog, acid rain, global warming,
and air toxics.
6. Carbon Emission
Table:1 Modeled generation profile
Emission of CO2 Per KWh is 2.08 ( Eco)
Time T= Operation time L=Generation
capacity
G=L x Capacity
(Megawatt)
O=G x T x 1000
(KWh)
6:00 am -2:00 pm 8 60% 792 6336000
2:00 pm -10:00
pm
8 55% 726 5808000
10:00 pm -6:00
am
8 80% 1056 8448000
Total 24 20592000
Time O Eco O x Eco {( O x Eco) x 0.453592} /1000000 (Million kg)
24 hr 20592000 2.08 42831360 19.42
7. Calculation:
• Molecular weight of Carbon, in 11.6 MKg of CO2.
• 44 gm of CO2 = 1 mole
• 1000 gm of CO2 = 1000/44 = 22.7 moles of C.
• 1 Mole of C= 12 gm of C
• 22.7 moles of C =22.7 × 12 = 272.4 gm of C
• 1kg of CO2 contains 272.4 gm of C = 0.2724 Kg of C
• 19.42 Kg of CO2 contains =19.42×0.2724 = 5.29 kg of C
• So Rampal will produce 5.29 Million Kg of Carbon per 24 hours of
operation
9. Economic Impact
- Loans are expected to fund up to 70% of the building cost while
remaining 30% will be provided by Bangladesh & India 15% each
- Rampal power station will produce electricity that will cost 32% more
than the average electricity costs in Bangladesh
- Bangladesh government has committed to pay US$26m annually for
maintenance dredging from Mongla Port to the outer bar.97 This
subsidy amounts to a total of US$1.9bn over the life of the project.
- Rampal power plant will help reduce the electricity deficit of the
country and directly helping industrialization by supplying electricity.
- It will create employment opportunity
10. Hopes & suggestions
Rampal power plant will help cope with our
energy problem but if that is at the cost of our environment
then it will rather turn into a curse. We hope and expect that
our Government will take all precautionary measures to keep
the environmental impacts at lowest possible level.
Government should be responsible enough to consider the
endangerment of Sundarban & take steps to ensure its safety
that’s our hope.
