We find it difficult to provide cogent excerpts from the document we submit herein. It is, in fact, evidence of on-going development, within the USDOE, of various Coal liquefaction and conversion technologies, about which the majority of us have never even heard.
Within it, though not included in our excerpts, you will find brief discussion of Eastman Chemical's start-up of their now-commercial plant in Kingsport, TN, wherein Coal is converted into the nearly-precious liquid hydrocarbon, Methanol, and of similar operations in LaPorte, TX; both of which we have documented for the West Virginia Coal Association.
Coal conversion technological developments by other major corporations, such as Bechtel and Pennsylvania's Air Products and Chemicals, both of them as we've earlier documented, are also noted.
Further comment follows the briefest of excerpts from the enclosed link to and attached file of:
"DOE Indirect Coal Liquefaction - Hurdles and Opportunities for It's Early Commercialization (1997)
USDOE - Germantown, MD, and Pittsburgh, PA
The (USDOE) has been supporting a coal liquefaction program to develop improved technologies for converting coal to clean and cost-effective liquid fuels and/or chemicals ... .
The goal ... is to produce coal liquids that are competitive with crude at $25 per barrel."
---------
It seems to us that the "$25 per barrel" target could now be loosened up a tad.
And, should you take the time to examine the full report, you will discover a paradox, a conundrum:
These USDOE authors note, almost in passing, the purchase of truly major quantities of Coal gasification and Coal conversion capital equipment by SASOL - South Africa Synthetic Oil Limited.
But, as far as US activities go, they are limited to the vaguest discussion only of pilot plants and lab tests.
However, in the most tepid of wording, they do recommend adoption of a technology about which we have earlier reported: Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, "IGCC", in which liquid and gaseous fuels and chemicals, and commercial quantities of electrical power, are all produced, concurrently,within a single industrial facility that uses only one raw material:
Coal.