WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

USAF & Morgantown/Pittsburgh DOE Convert Coal & Bio

 
We called your attention yesterday to a US DOE coal liquefaction project being undertaken in Louisiana, but being managed out of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) offices next door to WVU, in Morgantown, WV.
 
No further comment on the self-evident paradoxes inherent in that arrangement, but herein we alert you to yet another fairly recent, publicly unheralded, undertaking by our local DOE offices, in conjunction with the US Air Force as a part of their extensive coal-to-liquid jet fuel development program, which we have been able to document for you.
 
Note that a second link, leading to the full report, is included below, following the this excerpt from the link above:
 

"Release Date: August 29, 2007

 
NETL and USAF Release Feasibility Study for Conceptual Coal+Biomass-to-Liquids Facility
Facility Would Capitalize on Domestic Energy Resources, Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
 

MORGANTOWN, WV — The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL) and the U.S. Air Force have released a study that examines the feasibility of producing l00,000 barrels per day of jet fuel from coal and biomass. The coal+biomass-to-liquids (CBTL) facilities could also cut life-cycle emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary greenhouse gas, by 20 percent compared to conventional petroleum processes.

The study provides a performance baseline that can be used to show how CBTL with carbon capture and storage would capitalize on domestic energy resources, provide a buffer against rising petroleum and natural gas prices, and mitigate output of CO2.

The joint NETL/Air Force report, Increasing Security and Reducing Carbon Emissions of the U.S. Transportation Sector: A Transformational Role for Coal with Biomass, looks at a plant design that would gasify coal and corn stover (the leaves and stalks left in a cornfield after harvest), and then convert the gas to jet fuel using Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) chemistry. The report is the first of a series of feasibility and conceptual plant design studies undertaken for commercial-scale F-T plants employing co-gasification of coal and biomass.

At full capacity, a single plant, using the base-case configuration outlined in the report, would use more than 4,500 tons of high-sulfur bituminous coal and nearly 630 tons of corn stover per day. From this feedstock it would produce—

  • Nearly 7,500 barrels per day of diesel fuel or aviation jet fuel that, with additives, can be delivered to end-use customers.
  • More than 3,500 barrels per day of liquid naphtha products that can be shipped to a refinery for further upgrading to commercial-grade products or sold as chemical feedstock.
  • 11.1 megawatts of electricity that can be exported to the grid, in addition to the electricity generated for internal use.

An environmentally friendly energy producer, the conceptual plant is based on the use of “best available control technology” guidelines for sulfur, nitrous oxides, particulate matter, and mercury. In addition, CO2 will be captured and compressed for injection into a pipeline that will ship the CO2 to a sequestration site.

Current and projected high oil prices, and rising concerns about dependence on imported oil, are creating new interest in alternative fuels.  In the past, liquid fuels derived from coal have been unable to compete with the price of fuels derived from crude oil.

The report finds economic benefits for converting coal and biomass to liquids, based on the price of crude oil. At current crude oil prices of over $60 per barrel, the commercial-scale CBTL plant configurations are shown to produce products that are competitive in the liquid fuel markets.

The full report [PDF-532KB] is available on DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory’s website.

Contact: David Anna, DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory, 412-386-4646"

No comment on that fact that to get information on this study, managed, apparently, out the NETL's Morgantown, WV, office, you have to call Pittsburgh, but we did manage to track down a link to the report file for the project. Due to our technical limitations, we are unable to download the file efficiently, or make excerpts for you, but the title sure is enticing, and we bet your readers would like to have a look:

http://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analyses/pubs/NETL-AF%20CBTL%20Study%20Final%202007%20Aug%2024.pdf

"Increasing Security and Reducing Carbon Emissions of the US Transportation Sector: A Transformational Role for Coal with Biomass
 
August 24, 2007"
 
Gosh, using coal and biomass to increase our security and reduce emissions sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? Odd that we haven't heard more about it.
 
We'll repeat a few key phrases from above, for emphasis:
 
"The study provides a performance baseline that can be used to show how CBTL with carbon capture and storage would capitalize on domestic energy resources, provide a buffer against rising petroleum and natural gas prices, and mitigate output of CO2."
 
They're still speaking of wasteful and unnecessary "carbon ... storage" nonsense here, so perhaps someone should tell the Air Force about the Navy's patented technology, which we documented for you, for recycling Carbon Dioxide and converting it into liquid fuels.
 
But even though they seem compelled to genuflect to the Green Goddess by repeating their "sequestration's" genuflections, they do note that: "The coal+biomass-to-liquids (CBTL) facilities could also cut life-cycle emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary greenhouse gas, by 20 percent compared to conventional petroleum processes."
 
Not compared to coal, mind you, but compared to "conventional petroleum". In other words, coal plus biomass to liquid fuels would cut CO2 compared to what we have now. 
 
In any case, the Air Force's projected co-generating pilot plant, to repeat, would produce, from coal and CO2-recycling biomass:
 
  • Nearly 7,500 barrels per day of diesel fuel or aviation jet fuel that, with additives, can be delivered to end-use customers.
  • More than 3,500 barrels per day of liquid naphtha products that can be shipped to a refinery for further upgrading to commercial-grade products or sold as chemical feedstock.
  • 11.1 megawatts of electricity that can be exported to the grid, in addition to the electricity generated for internal use."
    •  
    Sounds pretty good, doesn't it: Diesel fuel, organic chemical manufacturing raw materials, and cogenerated electricity as a result of coal liquefaction with carbon-recycling biomass?
     
    It would, in the words of their own sub-headline: "Capitalize on Domestic Energy Resources, Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions".
     
    When do we start pouring the foundations?
     
    And, why haven't those of us in Coal Country heard about these recent, critical, coal-centered developments, managed as they are by our own Federal Government offices in the very heart of Coal Country?