TECHNO-ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA, A REVIEW

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 10, Issue 03, March 2019, pp. 60-68. Article ID: IJMET_10_03_006
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=3
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed
TECHNO-ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF COAL-
FIRED POWER PLANT IN SOUTH EAST
NIGERIA, A REVIEW
N. E. Udoye
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Covenant University Ota,
Lagos state, Nigeria
I. P. Okokpujie
J. O. Okeniyi
Department of Mechanical Engineering science, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg-
2006, South Africa.
J. O. Dirisu
I. Ikpotokin
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Landmark University,
Kwara State, Nigeria
ABSTRACT-
This research focus on a recent review of the techno economic study of coal fired
power plant in south east Nigeria, its application, effects and suggestion in processing
the coal and safeguard the atmosphere. Electricity crisis in Nigeria and power reform
in the sector is analyzed to determine another source of electricity generation in the
country. To recognize the fact that coal is one of the mostly available sources of
energy than oil and natural gas. Furthermore, Coal production in different countries
and environmental impacts enables us to forge ahead in generating electricity through
coal processing. Finally, economic evaluation of the plant will boost coal fired power
plant in south east Nigeria.
Keywords: Coal-fired power plant, Electricity crisis, Power reform sector, Techno-
economic,

N. E. Udoye, I. P. Okokpujie, J. O. Okeniyi, J. O. Dirisu and I. Ikpotokin
Cite this Article: N. E. Udoye, I. P. Okokpujie, J. O. Okeniyi, J. O. Dirisu and I.
Ikpotokin, Techno-Economic Evaluation of Coal-Fired Power Plant in South East
Nigeria, a Review, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology,
10(3), 2019, pp. 60-68.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=3
1. INTRODUCTION
The quest for worldwide energy requirements and the negative influence of non-renewable
fossil fuels on atmosphere had shifted usage of renewable resources such as: solar,
geothermal, and wind Adaramola et al., (2011). Coal-fired power generation is mostly used to
generate power in China. Coal contributed immensely to the generation of 70.5% electricity
produced in China by the end of 2014.Yong Zhu et al., (2017). Duan et al., (2017). The
discovery of oil in the 1950 affected Nigeria's coal industry but before the incident the biggest
consumption of coal is Nigerian Railway Corporation. Moreover, oil boom forced the
Railway Corporation to depend on diesel-powered engines instead of burning of coal. The
major set -back was when electricity Corporation of Nigeria converts power generated from
coal to diesel and gas. Coal production was affected negatively as a result of Nigerian Civil
War which led to many mines been jettisoned during the war. The recovery of coal production
system was inevitable as mechanized production proved abortive. It is very difficult to
execute and repair imported mining equipment which resulted to low productivity. The coal
industry lost its production capability after the civil war (Odesola et al., 2013).
2. A REVIEW OF ELECTRICITY CRISIS AND POWER REFORM
2.1. Electricity crisis
Energy is a prerequisite for the overall development of economic of any Nation and raising
the standard of living of the teeming population. It is impossible to reduce poverty level of a
country without access to large amount of energy (Adaramola et al., 2014). The Nigerian
Power Sector has been facing a lot of challenges in the areas of generation, transmission and
distribution. The challenges have created gap between demand for and supply of electricity.
The major causes of under- utilization are incessant failure of generating plant and equipment
because of insufficient repairs and maintenance, inadequate machine parts and exorbitant
costs of the parts. Power generation in Nigeria is low relative to other countries. The USA of
Population 260 million generates 500,000 megawatts of electricity while Nigeria of
Population 150 million generates 3,000 kilowatts of electricity. Nigeria as an industrial nation
needs a minimal of 60,000 megawatts of electrical energy. Each household will need 3.45kw
of energy to meet its domestic power consumption. Nigeria should strive to produce
90,000mw of energy daily. Nigeria generate not more than 4,000mw of electrical power that
will be insufficient to supply electricity to Lagos city with a population of over 10 million
residents with high rise building and substantial industrial layout (Owolabi, 2010). The
current power supply in the country is poor and inadequate. Electric power is the power house
that moves industries which enhances communication, promoting technology, provides good
healthcare services and living standard in the country (Okokpujie et al., 2018). Nigeria needs
steady electricity supply to improve the economy base.

Techno-Economic Evaluation of Coal-Fired Power Plant in South East Nigeria, a Review
Figure 1: the illustration of power generated in 2009 in United State (Owolabi, 2010)
Figure 2: the percentage of industrial energy consumption from various source of energy in Brazil
2014 (Brazil-empresa, 2015)
From Figure 1 and 2, show the percentage illustration of power generated in United States
and Brazil. The use of coal in power generation is widely been given a great concentration in
the world, due to it numerous advantage in power / electricity generation. In U.S and Brazil,
coal energy is one of their major source of power generation, which has help the country to
generate reasonable power for over some period of decays (Okokpujie et al., 2018). The
continues research in this area of coal is very significant, not only to increase power
generation, it will also lead to increase in the economic state of the country, igniting the
industry production output (Fayomi et al., 2019; saracoglu 2018; Okokpujie et al., 2019).
The biggest Nigerian problem is electricity crisis. There is urgent need to use other energy
sources for electricity production (Okokpujie et al., 2019). Several researches carried out
depicts that there are adequate coal reserves that is twice natural gas and three and half greater
than oil (Owolabi 2010).

2.2. Power reform sector in Nigeria
Power sector reform started in 2005 and was run by National Electric Power Authority
(NEPA). The government system of monopoly made it very difficult to commercialize the
system. Leakages of the reform
 Inadequate investment in generating electricity, circulation and transmission of
power
 There was high suppressed demand throughout Nigeria and the deficiency in
allowing private to participate
 Lackadaisical attitude of management and loopholes
 Load demand increment continually causing constant generational level. Adeola
(2012)
The reform act of the electric power sector was endorsed in 2005 to drive the reform
process.
The components of the reform act include the following.
1. Transferring of NEPA’s assets to PHCN and creating three sub divisions
 One transmission company
 Six generating companies
 Eleven distribution companies
2. Institute a substantial power trading between power producers and eleven
distribution companies.
3. NELMCO to control PHCN deserted assets and liabilities.
4. Inaugurate self-governing segment that regulates: The Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC)
5. Provision of customer support fund.
6. Development of viable electricity market by creating new IPP’s and ring-fence
distribution companies.
7. Establishment of rural electrification Agency
The success of the above reform can only be achieved by government diversification of its
major interest in
 Power Generation: PHCN thermal power plants asset should be declared for sale
and commercialization of hydro power plants.
 Power transmission: Private sector participation should be allowed while
government retains principal ownership.
 Power distribution: the electricity distribution should be in the hand of the private
sector.
 All the points are in agreement with the electricity power sector reform act 2005
Opportunities in Generation
The road map has also opened wide opportunities in all the value chains in power sector.
Among these are:
 Prospects to invest in gas manufacturing and gas shipping for generation of power.
 Improving coal deposits and mining chances and on- going privatization of
generating stations

 Thermal power plant should be sold to core investors and rehabilitation of hydro
power station.
 Opportunities in coal- fired plants and gas–fired plants (NERC to develop primary
coal plant tariff).
 Ability to regulate renewable energy standards and equipping feed in tariff Adeola
et al (2012)
Coal is mostly available energy sources than oil and natural gas. It is majorly used as a
solid fuel to manufacture electricity and heat through combustion. Government should
improve on the production and usage of coal as another means of power generation.
Table 1: Generating electricity using coal Lydersen, (2009)
Country % of coal
Germany 41
USA 45
Czech Republic 51
Morocco 51
Greece 54
Israel 58
India 68
Australia 78
PR China 79
Poland 87
South Africa 93
Figure 3: Coal production in different countries
6.75 billion Coal was consumed in the world in the year 2006 and this number
skyrocketed by 48% to 9.98 billion by 2030. 2.38 billion tons was produced by China in 2006
while India generated 447.3 million tons in 2006. Furthermore, 68.7% of electricity produced
from China is from coal. 14% of Coal produced in the world is used by USA and 90% of it is
utilized to generate electricity Lydersen (2009).
The processing of coal for electricity generation is done by pulverizing and combusting
them in a furnace utilizing a boiler. The heat from the furnace transforms boiler water to
steam used to turn turbines that will produce electricity. Improvement has been done over
0
20
40
60
80
100
%
%

time on the thermodynamic efficiency. Steam turbine cycles have surpassed the previous ones
with 35% thermodynamic efficiency for the whole procedure. The efficiency can be improved
upon by maximizing the combustion temperature. The research carried out show that 40% of
the world's electricity emanated from coal and 2008 estimation show that 49% of the United
States' electricity originated from coal.
Coal-fired power plant is used to describe various industrial plants that generates
electricity by burning coal and air in a steam generator that heats water to produce high
pressure and high temperature steam which then passes through a series of steam turbines that
rotates in an electrical generator to produce electricity. The exhaust steam from the turbines is
cooled, condensed back into water and reverted to the steam generator to continue the process
again.
Nwasike (2003)
Nigerian coals are found mostly in Asaba, Enugu, Ezimo, Okaba, Ogboyoga, Orukpa,
Inyi, and Lafia-obi. The major deposits are located in viable capacities in Nigeria including
Okpara and Onyeama in Enugu and Okaba in Benue State. Semi-coking coal is obtained in
large sizes in Lafia and Obi in Nasarawa State, although its sulphur and phosphorus contents
are considered to be high. The regulatory authority in Nigeria have failed to realized the
socio-economic and commercial important of resuscitating and rebuilding of coal industry.
The inability of the system to have good energy policy that addresses the duty and
responsibility of various energy policy hinders national development and reaching Nigeria’s
long-term goals.
Figure 4: The primary source of energy production in Nigeria (Malmsheimer et al., 2011)
Figure 5: The Primary source of energy consumption in Nigeria (Nussbaumer et al 2012)

Figure 6: the analysis of the energy consumption vs. the per capita gross domestic product
(GDP) (Stankiewicz, 2006).
Figure 4 to 6, shows the analysis of the primary source of energy production, consumption
and the rate of energy consumption with the per capital DGP of Nigeria. This illustration is
very clear that as of now Nigeria energy production depend greatly on oil and gas, and
Nigeria still import almost 50% of this said oil from foreign countries. Coal can be developed
in any part of the world, when is abundantly found.
Current research on technology and economy proved that energy from coal is the cheapest
method of generating electricity. Coal energy is approximately 20% more than fuel oil and the
price of crude oil is moving up to US$100 per barrel which will continue to increase in size.
The reservoir in Nigeria is over two billion tons which is made coal as an abundant domestic
reserve that can sustain the mining and energy industries. These will provide abundant jobs
that will have great impact on the indigenous economy. Recent technology permits hygienic
burning of coal that will resolve environmental negative effect (Olabanji 1990). Coal is a
plentiful, commonly exist and low cost energy source. Coal also delivers a quick and effective
fuel source to ensure consistency, while solar thermal energy can minimize the plant’s total
CO2 emissions (Zhai, 2016; Powell, 2017).
3. TYPES OF COAL
The coal is graded according to the level of transformation of parent plant material into
carbon and which helps to estimate the age of the coal. The more the coal stays the higher the
carbon content. The coal is ranked according to its most carbon content to the least which
comprises of anthracite, bituminous coal, sub-bituminous coal, and lignite. The best coal is
the one with the highest carbon content and spotless type of coal to use. Anthracite often
referred to as hard coal is stronger, shiny, black and lustrous is utilized in resident and
industrial space heating. It is the highest ranked coal lower in sulphur and high in carbon. It
has less than 15% moisture content. It is glossy black with a crystal structure and shell like
fracture. It is used mostly as a fuel and source of industrial carbon. It is harder to ignite than
other types of coal but releases a great deal of energy when burned and gives off little smoke
and soot (Html 2014).
3.1. Environmental Impacts:
The profits accrue from coal is greater than any unforeseen negative effects.
 The mining of Coal resulted to environmental degradation and discharging of
dangerous chemicals into streams and destruction of aquatic lives.

 Coal mining contributed to increase of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide emissions
and nitrogen oxides emissions in the U.S.
 Carbon dioxide emissions causes half of global warming (Html, 2014)
3.2. Economic evaluation of the plants
 Coal liquification minimizes exorbitant prices of oil and lessens the effects of
transportation energy pitfall occurring under peak oil.
 To reduce the tar and fertilizers importation which are produced from coal
purification.
 Lignite one of the various types of coal is full of hydrocarbons, waxes and resins,
which will make manufacture of liquid fuels and chemicals possible.
 Coal mining provides jobs to its teeming population in the rural and
underdeveloped areas. Html 2014
4. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, techno - economic study of coal fired power plant in south east Nigeria are
analyzed. Coal energy is one of the alternative means of solving the effect of oil and natural
gas depletion on the environment. Research has shown that many countries generate most of
their electricity from coal. Adequate study is done to ensure pollution free electricity
production from coal. Economic evaluation of the plant is carried out to overcome the
environmental impacts of the coal plants.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors will like to acknowledge the support of Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria for
open access journal publication.
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