http://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analyses/pubs/CBTL052012.pdf
The report we enclose via the initial link in this dispatch was just made available online by the United States Department of Energy, although it's official date of publication is December, 2011, and it's official "online" date is May, 2012.
It confirms that Coal can be transformed, right now, into liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels that are both cleaner and cheaper than those made from natural petroleum.
Some advance excerpts from this official USDOE report:
"It was found that diesel fuel can be produced from coal that has a lower life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile than conventional petroleum-derived diesel fuel on a well-to-wheels basis. This requires the sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced at the facility, and methane mitigation practices may be required in the case of certain bituminous coals which are particularly high in methane content."
Don't be misdirected by the occasional thin slices of baloney they do try to slip into this sandwich.
If we don't sequester the CO2, then the "emissions profile" will be about the same as "conventional petroleum-derived diesel fuel", as is confirmed, though very, very obtusely, in the full body of the report.
And, since when did we start worrying about "methane"?
If we are going to worry about it, then they had darned-well better start measuring those emissions as they arise from conventional petroleum refineries and, very especially, as leakage from shale gas wells.
Otherwise, the mere mention of "methane" is just another, and absolutely meaningless, attempt to cast doubt on, and scatter specious objections into the path of, Coal liquefaction.
"The coal-derived diesel will be economically viable when crude oil prices are as low as $94 per barrel, corresponding to a petroleum-derived diesel price of $2.70 per gallon."
Their "correspondence" calculations might be a little off. Taxation has a lot to do with it, but, as reported by the USDOE's official Energy Information Agency, via:
2011 Brief: U.S. average gasoline and diesel prices over $3 per gallon throughout 2011 - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Informa;
"The average spot price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil was $94.87 per barrel in 2011";
and:
Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update
The average US price of Diesel fuel, at the pump, as of June 25, 2012, was $3.78 per gallon.
We are right where we need to be, right now.
Further:
"If sufficient biomass resources are available to co-convert with the coal, the GHG emissions profile of the diesel fuel can be significantly reduced at a minimal increase in cost. This synergy represents a near-term pathway to leverage cellulosic biomass at a large-scale, enabling dramatic cost reductions when compared to current technologies for producing fuels from biomass."
And, we will tell you right here, as we might start to document in coming reports, even if we miners of Coal, and we supposedly-faithful reporters of the doings in Coal County, are too dense or too tied up with trivia to recognize and acknowledge the potentials for co-converting Coal and Biomass, in an economical and environmentally-beneficial way, into the liquid hydrocarbons that we now debase our economy and our ethics by importing from OPEC, the Thoreau-thumping Greens are not.
We gratefully acknowledge that the existence of the USDOE report we bring to your attention herein was made known to us by the editors of Biodiesel Magazine.
Coal Country news reporters: Get off your dead cans.
The bio-fuels patriots are openly reporting on, and conducting open discourse on, and are more than willing to talk about, the potentials for Coal and Biomass to be synergistically harnessed and processed together to improve both our environment and our economy, and to free us from economic and political enslavement to the foreign powers of OPEC.
Comment follows more cohesive excerpts from our initial link to:
"Production of Zero Sulfur Diesel Fuel from Domestic Coal: Configurational Options to Reduce Environmental Impact
December 2011
DOE/NETL-2012/1542; U.S. Department of Energy; DOE Contract Number DE-FE0004001
NETL Contact: Thomas J. Tarka, P.E.; Office of Strategic Energy Analysis & Planning; National Energy Technology Laboratory
Prepared by: Energy Sector Planning and Analysis (ESPA); Charles White (and) David Gray, Noblis
Summary: The conversion of domestic resources such as coal and biomass into diesel fuel is a near-term
technology pathway to address the energy security, economic sustainability, and climate change concerns which currently face our nation. This study evaluates the economic viability and environmental impact of producing diesel fuel via Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis.
Two facility design approaches - focused on fuels production and the co-production of fuels and electricity, respectively - were evaluated for the conversion of domestic resources such as coal or a mixture of coal and biomass.
It was found that diesel fuel can be produced from coal that has a lower life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile than conventional petroleum-derived diesel fuel on a well-to-wheels basis.
This requires the sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced at the facility, and methane mitigation practices may be required in the case of certain bituminous coals which are particularly high in methane content.
The coal-derived diesel will be economically viable when crude oil prices are as low as $94 per barrel, corresponding to a petroleum-derived diesel price of $2.70 per gallon.
If sufficient biomass resources are available to co-convert with the coal, the GHG emissions profile of the diesel fuel can be significantly reduced at a minimal increase in cost.
This synergy represents a near-term pathway to leverage cellulosic biomass at a large-scale, enabling dramatic cost reductions when compared to current technologies for producing fuels from biomass.
Replacing 15 percent of the feedstock to the facility with switchgrass will result in a fuel which produces up to 34 percent less life cycle GHG emissions than petroleum-derived diesel.
Such a facility would be economically viable at crude oil prices as low as $104 per barrel, increasing the
diesel fuel price by $0.26 to $0.46 per gallon.
The choice of switchgrass is notable because it is an herbaceous crop which can be grown on land not suitable for food crops, alleviating competition with food crops for cropland.
Other cellulosic biomass types can also be leveraged, although the change in fuel price and GHG benefits will vary depending on the biomass which is selected and the type of land it is cultivated on.
(Note: We don't need a lot of land. There is, as indicated above, another choice for "the biomass". As seen, for just one out of now many examples, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Coal + Biomass to Liquids, with Algae CO2 Recycling | Research & Development; concerning, primarily: United States Patent Application 20120144887 - Integrated Coal to Liquids Process and System with CO2 Mitigation Using Algal Biomass; 2012; Assignee: Accelergy Corporation, Houston; Abstract: An ICBTL (Integrated Coal and Biomass To Liquids) system having a low GHG footprint for converting coal or coal and biomass to liquid fuels in which a carbon-based feed is converted to liquids by direct liquefaction and optionally by indirect liquefaction and the liquids are upgraded to produce premium fuels. CO2 produced by the process is used to produce algal biomass and photosynthetic microorganisms in a photobioreactor. Optionally, lipids extracted from the some or all of the algal biomass is hydroprocessed to produce fuel components and biomass residues and the carbon-based feed (are) gasified to produce hydrogen and syngas for the direct and indirect liquefaction processes";
we can feed any byproduct CO2 to Algae grown in relatively compact facilities. The Algae will convert the byproduct CO2 into biolipids, which can be extracted and conventionally "hydroprocessed to produce fuel components"; while the "biomass residues", after the lipid extraction, which will consist primarily, as with "switchgrass", of "cellulosic biomass", would, as per the USDOE report we bring to your attention herein, be
"available to co-convert with the coal". And, as now seems conceivable, the entire Coal-Bio co-conversion process could be made essentially Carbon neutral.)
Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is a near-term technology pathway which can be leveraged to produce large volumes of fungible transportation fuels from domestic coal and biomass. A commercial scale plant would produce 50,000 barrels per day, or almost 700 million gallons per year, using technologies which are available, but which require an integrated demonstration. The fuels are economically viable at diesel prices as low as $2.70 per gallon, and technological headroom exists for innovation that will further bring down cost."
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First of all, the "Fischer-Tropsch" Coal and Cellulose-based "synthesis" ain't "a near-term technology".
It is, literally, ancient, "past-term" technology. As seen in various of our reports, and as can learned via:
Sasol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "Sasol ... is a South African company involved in mining, energy, chemicals and synfuels. In particular, they produce petrol and diesel profitably from coal ... using (the) Fischer-Tropsch process";
it has been used, in South Africa, to profitably convert Coal into "petrol and diesel" for more than half a century. The first production facility in South Africa began converting Coal, on an industrial scale and on a commercial basis, into liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels in the mid-1950's.
Has a Coal Country newspaper ever, once, made a report, or published a profile, of them?
Why not?
And, what is their excuse for allowing Biodiesel Magazine, of all sources, to help us scoop them on reporting the fact, as documented herein, that: our own United States Department of Energy itself confirms that Coal can, right now, be converted into liquid hydrocarbon fuels that are cheaper, and which, overall, emit fewer greenhouse gases and other pollutants, such as Sulfur, than those liquid hydrocarbon fuels now made from natural petroleum?
