At the Knurów-Szczygłowice mine, Szczygłowice Section, a plant for the production of energy pellets was launched today (1 September), the second such installation working for JSW. Thanks to the new plant, the Company will produce more than 130,000 tons of energy pellets by the end of the year, which will be used to increase the amount of steam coal blends that will be fully supplied to the commercial power and heating plants.
“We are a company whose main product is coking coal. But in view of the huge demand for steam coal, we are trying to meet the expectations and, among other things, that's why we launched an energy pellet plant today. This is the second plant used by Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa," said Tomasz Cudny, President of JSW.
The installation at the Szczygłowice Section was built in just 3 weeks. It is owned by Haldex S.A. of Katowice, which has the most experience in pellet production on the Polish market. Haldex has five such installations. Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa supplies the material for the production of the pellet and owns it. Haldex is a service provider.
“The new plant at the Szczygłowice Section is an example of good cooperation between two state-owned companies. We agreed with JSW management that we would build the plant, which would take much less time, and in the process JSW would avoid huge construction costs. The fact that Haldex's employees have a great deal of experience in the production of pellets was also important," said Bogdan Lesniowski, President of Haldex S.A.
The pellet is produced in the refining process from the fine coal fractions obtained in the production of coking coal. The capacity of the installation at the Szczygłowice Section is expected to eventually reach 600 tons per day. The pellets are used as an additive to steam coal and, like the steam coal produced by JSW, are sent to commercial power plants. The introduction of additional quantities of coal for power generation should reduce the raw material gap for producers of district heating and electricity.
Piotr Pyzik, Deputy Minister of State Assets, Special Representative of the Government for the Transformation of Energy Companies and Coal Mining, came to see the newly completed plant.
