Technicians at Harbin Boiler Co monitor new equipment at the Junggar Basin East Coal Field. [Photo/MY399.COM]

Executives at Harbin Boiler Co, a subsidiary of leading power equipment producer Harbin Electric Corporation, recently announced that a new coal-fired boiler unit -- which solves the problem of the low combustion efficiency of coal with high alkali content -- had passed 168 hours of trial operations and had gone into operation.

Harbin Boiler Co, which researches, develops and manufactures boilers, is based in Harbin city, capital of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province.

Company executives said the new boiler was designed for the two 660 megawatt generator units at the China Shenhua Wucaiwan Power Plant, which provides power supplied by coal from the Junggar Basin East Coal Field.

They said the estimated reserves of the coal field are 390 billion metric tons, which is expected to last for a century based on currency production levels.

Officials at the field have said that while the coal’s power efficiency is not high, the alkali content is high and it will ignite when burned at a high temperature. They said the coal needs to be blended with 50 percent of high-purity pure coal to burn normally.

Company executives said that due to the its low utilization value, the price of coal produced in the Junggar Basin is only 20 ($2.83) to 30 yuan per ton.

In order to achieve coal combustion and enable exploitation of the coal resources, Harbin Boiler Co has developed boilers to improve the coal combustion efficiency over a nine-year period.

In 2013, two boilers with combustion efficiency of more than 90 percent went into use in Xinjiang.

Early June this year, Harbin Boiler Co improved the combustion efficiency to 100 percent, allowing coal produced in the Junggar Basin can be burned normally without having to mix high-pure coal to increase combustion.

Company executives said it marked a great milestone for China’s utilization of low-quality coal.