allAfrica.com: Mozambique: Vale Plans to Produce Diesel From Coal
We were unable to find any links to our earlier reports of it on the WV Coal Association web site, but, we long ago called your attention to the planned Coal mine waste-to-liquid fuel project in Gilberton, PA.
As we explained in those earlier reports, Coal mine waste accumulations, especially older ones, and depending upon the type of Coal mined and the markets for which that Coal was intended, sometimes contain quite appreciable quantities of carbonaceous material; and, the quantities of residual carbon can be large enough to make the commercial recovery of that carbon at least conceivable.
While we, and our public sentries, were all asleep on the watchtower, however, the Gilberton mine waste reclamation project was strangled in it's crib, by the usual suspects.
More can be learned via:
Gilberton Coal-to Clean Fuels and Power Project, PAProject No Project; wherein we're told:
"The developer planned a 41 megawatt coal-to-oil plant to convert anthracite waste coal into fuel, producing 5,000 barrels of diesel fuel a day. Local citizen groups opposed development due to the potential CO2 emissions from the process. Sierra Club opposed the project as part of its national strategy to oppose all coal projects. It lists the project as a “victory” on its 'Stopping the Coal Rush' website."
That local PA citizens, in an area of PA where they likely could use the work, might have "opposed development due to the potential CO2 emissions from the process" sounds somewhat specious to us; but, if they did, it's because they didn't have any accurate information concerning the truth of the matter.
And that, of course, brings us back to our sleepy watchtower. We handed the Sierra Club it's "victory".
Heed needs paid to articles like:SIERRA CLUB CONTINUES TO PUSH JOB KILLING AGENDA | Latest; and, perhaps some full public disclosure of financing sources for anti-Coal propaganda needs to be made.
There might well be oil stains, Big Oil stains, on the Sierra Club's bed sheets.
However there are places in the world, outside of our own US Coal Country, where they are far more up to speed on the true potentials for the full utilization of Coal resources, and are happy to publicly discuss them.
Among those places are, somewhat oddly, Portugal, and two of her former colonies.
Comment follows, and is inserted within, excerpts from the initial and following links in this dispatch:
"Mozambique: Vale Plans to Produce Diesel Fuel From Coal
Maputo — The Brazilian mining company Vale announced that it intends to install a plant to convert coal into liquid fuels in Moatize district, in the central Mozambican province of Tete.
Vale's open cast mine in Moatize will produce a variety of grades of coal. While high quality coking coal is mostly for export, some of the thermal coal will supply a coal fired power station that will initially produce 300 megawatts of electricity - and coal with a high ash content can be turned into diesel."
First of all, most in US Coal Country might not have even heard of "Vale". They are, though, a significant international mining enterprise, as seen, following:
Vale (mining company) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; wherein we learn:
"Vale, S.A. is a Brazilian diversified mining multinational corporation and one of the largest logistics operators in Brazil. In addition to being the second-largest mining company in the world, Vale is also the largest producer of iron ore pellets and second largest of nickel. Vale also produces manganese, ferroalloys, copper, bauxite, potash, kaolin, alumina and aluminium. In the electric energy sector, the company participates in consortia and currently operates nine hydroelectric plants.
Vale, besides being present in 16 Brazilian states is also present in 6 continents: South America, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Vale has managed to establish itself as a global mining company through joint ventures and acquisitions abroad. Vale has participation on mining operations in Finland, Canada, Australia, Mongolia, China, India, Angola, South Africa, Chile, Peru and other countries."
So, we ain't talkin' Mike & Joe's Turkey Run Holler Mining and Coal Conversion, Ltd.; and, as with the South African Coal-liquefying energy giant, SASOL, maybe we should all pay a little informed attention to what they're doing and saying.
A little more can be learned about Vale's African Coal liquefaction project at:
Vale to build coal-to-liquid plant in Mozambique | MINING.com; wherein we're told: "The Brazilian mining company Vale is to enter into a partnership with the Portuguese company SGC Energia to build an industrial unit to convert coal into liquid fuel in Moatize district, in the central Mozambican province of Tete.
Vale estimates a liquefied fuel processing plant could produce 300 million litres of fuel a year, of which about half would be used by Vale in Mozambique. The rest would be sold on the domestic fuel market"; and, at:
allAfrica.com reports: which discloses that: "High quality coking coal will be exported, while thermal coal will be burnt at a planned power station to produce 300 megawatts of electricity. The remaining, low grade, coal with high ash content will be converted into liquid fuel."
In point of fact, and in the grand scheme of things, "300 million litres of fuel a year", ain't really a lot. But:
Should you read the full articles we've enclosed links to, they are making that fuel out of waste material that they would otherwise, as they plainly state, simply dispose of by using it as backfill.
And, we have to ask:
If a Brazilian company, albeit a big one, can make "300 million litres" of Diesel fuel per year from the wastes of just one Coal mine, again albeit a big one, in what many of us might think of as a remote section of the world, just how much Diesel fuel, per year, do you suppose we might be able to make, in the heart of United States Coal Country, out of the high-grade, run-of-mine bituminous Coal that just one mine in West Virginia or Pennsylvania could produce.