Turkey and the World Coal Reserves

Globally, coal reserves amount to 310.5 billion tonnes (34.8%) in Europe-Eurasia, 288.3 billion tonnes (32.3%) in Asia-Pacific countries, 245 billion tonnes (27.5%) in North America, 33 billion tons (3.7%) in the African-Eastern Mediterranean countries and 14.6 billion tons (1.6%) in the Central and South American countries.

Lignite is a type of coal which is generally used as a fuel in thermal power plants because it has low thermal value, high amount of ash and humidity.However, because it is found abundantly in the earth’s crust, it is often used as an energy source.Hard coal is a group of high calorie coals.

The largest portion of the world’s coal reserves reported by the World Energy Council in about 80 countries (237.3 billion tons) is located in the United States. The United States is followed by the Russian Federation with 157 billion tons and China with 114.5 billion tons. Other coal rich countries; Australia (76.4 billion tons), India (60.6 billion tons), Germany (40.5 billion tons), Ukraine (33.9 billion tons), Kazakhstan (33.6 billion tons) and South Africa Republic (30 , 2 billion tons). Hence, more than 90% of the world’s coal reserves are within the borders of these nine countries.

According to the World Energy Council’s research; the world proven operable coal reservesamount to a total of 892 billion tons. The said reserve; 403 billion tons of anthracite and bituminous coal, 287 billion tons of lower bituminous coal, and 201 billion tons of lignite. World’s total coal production in 2015 is taken into consideration, global coal reserves are estimated to have a life of 114 years. As a result of serious coal exploration activities carried out in recent years, the lignite reserve of our country has been increased considerably. However, efforts are being made to classify the reserves according to international standards and to determine our economically operable reserves.

In terms of our national reserves and production quantities, lignite can be evaluated at medium level in world scale and at low level in coal. Approximately 3.2% of total world lignite / sub bituminous coal reserves are in our country. However, since most of our lignite has a low thermal value, its use in thermal power plants is at the forefront.

Approximately 46% of our country’s lignite reserves are located in the Afşin-Elbistan basin. The most important coal reserves of our country are in and around Zonguldak. The total coal reserve in the Zonguldak Basin is 1.30 billion tons and the apparent reserve is 506 million tons. Lignite / lower bituminous coal deposits are spread in all regions of our country and the thermal values ​​of lignite / lower bituminous coal in these areas are 1000-5000 kcal / kg lt; / RTI & gt;

Approximately 68% of the total lignite / lower bituminous coal reserves in our country are low calorific, with 23,5% between 2000-3000 kcal / kg, 5,1% between 3000-4000 kcal / kg, 3,4% It is a thermal value over 4000 kcal / kg. As of the end of 2015, the share of the total primary energy consumption of our country, which is 126.9 Million Ton Equivalent Petroleum (MTEP), is 27.3%.As of the end of 2016, the total installed capacity of the coal-fired power plant in our country is 17.316 MW, corresponding to 22.1% of the total installed capacity. Installed capacity based on indigenous coal is 9,437 MW (12,1%) and installed capacity based on imported coal is 7,879 MW (10%).

Since 2005, in order to meet the increasing energy demand in parallel with the industrialization and population increase within the targets of giving importance to domestic resources in energy production and reducing external dependency; the discovery of new coal lands and the development of known lands have been accelerated. In addition to the existing reserves of 8.3 billion tons at the end of the coal searches, As of the end of 2014, 7,38 billion tons of new lignite reserves have been identified. In 2016, a total of 92.3 TWh of electricity was generated from coal-based power plants and its share in total electricity generation was 33.9%. ton reserve increase.The lignite reserves, which were 8.3 billion tones in 2005, exceeded 15 billion tones by the end of 2015.

TABLE 1: LONGLED RESALE AMOUNT BETWEEN 2005-2015

Instead of using natural gas, which is an imported resource, in electricity generation, we arecontinuing to work on the transfer of lignite units, which have reserves and thermic power plants, and the addition of new units to existing power plants.

Source: Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources