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At Coal Prep 2009 I saw tangible evidence that coal fired electric power generation may be another of those recession-proof industries. Like the food and pharmaceutical industries covered in part 1, electric power demand continues to fuel sales for industrial equipment makers.

Attendance at this year's show is estimated by the Coal Preparation Society of America to be up 15% over last year. They ran out of exhibit space in the main hall this year, and dozens of late comers were setup in the entrance outside the hall.

Although electric power was not one of the top 50 recession-proof industries listed in the Resume Bear article, turbine generators were listed as number two. This is what Resume Bear had to say about that industry, which largely holds true for power generation as well:

One defining trait of recession-proof industries is that they are often not dependent on consumer demand. That is, the industry in question produces something that is essential to business operations or things that have little or no bearing on consumer spending. Turbines and turbine generators are an excellent example of this, boasting 6%, 12%, and 2% growth during 1990, 2001, and 2007.

Electric Power and Coal
Lee Doyer, Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Pennsylvania Crusher Corporation told me that the utility and energy areas tend to weather recessions a lot better than other sectors.

"People still turn the lights on every day," he said, "and they still need electricity to run their computers and power their homes and businesses."

Pennsylvania Crusher exhibited their Mountaineer Sizer at the Coal Prep show. The sizer is used for primary and secondary sizing of coal at the mine. Pennsylvania Crusher is also a major supplier of reversible hammermill crushers used by electric power utilities and the Coalpactor coal crusher,  designed for fluid bed boiler power plants

Mike Hamby – Vice President Sales & Service – NAFTA at Gundlach Equipment Corporation said that both market demands and environmental concerns have coal producers looking to improve their processing to get more value from the coal they mine.

Gundlach was exhibiting their 4040D two-stage four-roll crusher, which takes feed up to 24" x 0" for product output of 2" x 0" and a capacity of 1000 STPH.

Hamby said he is also seeing more interest in technologies that employ lesser grade coal that once had little commercial value, such as crushing and pelletizing coal. Another example is the crushing of lower ranked coals such as lignite for coal gasification. These applications require coal sized  from to 6 - 3 mm, or less, which can be accomplished with Gundlach's Cage-Paktor cage mill. 

Co-firing Biomass and Coal
On the evening before Coal Prep's start Ted Gentile, International Sales Manager, Jeffrey Rader Corporation, gave a presentation on technologies used to feed dual fired coal and biomass boilers.

He described both mechanical feed systems and direct pneumatic injection systems that can be used to retrofit existing PF Wall Fired Utility Boilers and new Fluidized Bed Boiler Systems optimized for biomass and other diverse fuels.

Gentile told me that while dual fired boiler systems are new to the United States, his company has extensive experience building these systems in Europe. For more on feeding biomass into boilers see Gentile's recent blog article, Biomass Boiler Feed Systems Gain Global Acceptance.

At Coal Prep, Jeffrey Rader exhibited is electro mechanical vibratory feeder for coal and mini-mill crusher, which is used in mines and at prep plants.

Don Dunnington
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