Chinese Firm to Build Coal-to-Liquids Plant in Wyoming (SNP, ACI) - 24/7 Wall St.
We've reported to you a couple of times on the planned Medicine Bow, Wyoming, Coal liquefaction facility, or facilities, where, according to various reports, they will, in complementary and connected plants, be converting Coal into Methanol, Gasoline and Diesel fuel.
Our reports have included, for one example:
West Virginia Coal Association | Medicine Bow Methanol Project, Carbon County, Wyoming - Chemicals Technology | Research & Dev; wherein we're told, that: "The Medicine Bow methanol project is part of a coal-to-liquid fuels initiative being undertaken by the Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC (MBF&P), a subsidiary of DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC. The new methanol synthesis unit will be situated at a Greenfield site near a producing mine mouth in Carbon County, Wyoming. The low-sulphur coal feedstock will be used to produce both methanol and gasoline via synthesis gas and Fisher Tropsch type process technology. Medicine Bow Fuel is also developing other coal to liquids and diesel facilities in the same area as part of the project as there is an abundance of economically mined low sulphur coal as feedstock. An 11,000 barrel per day (bpd) coal-to-ultra-clean diesel unit has been under development since 2006 and is due to begin producing in fourth quarter of 2010. Construction began in late 2007 and there is an eventual plan to expand to 40,000bpd".
Information concerning the project has been relatively sparse; but, it is apparently moving ahead, and some folks who are really able to make it happen are getting involved.
In an earlier news story, accessible via:
State officials plan trips to discuss energy - Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online; "State Officials Plan Trips to Discuss Energy; Wyoming Tribune-Eagle; State officials are looking outside of Wyoming's borders for new ideas and partnerships to advance their energy goals. Gov. Matt Mead, legislators and University of Wyoming staffers are set to attend separate energy-related meetings in China and Texas in the coming weeks. State officials will travel ... to China ... for an international conference on coal technologies. The University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources is co-sponsoring the International Advanced Coal Technologies Conference in China. The four-day conference will center on the latest advancements and challenges in implementing clean-coal strategies, such as converting coal to liquid and gases. In addition to UW staff and about 10 students who will attend, at least three legislators have confirmed they are also attending. Northam said the lawmakers were asked to join because the Legislature has been active in funding coal-conversion programs through its Abandoned Mine Lands fund";
it was related that Wyoming government officials were serious enough about the concept of converting Coal into liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels that they were spending taxpayer money to travel to China, where, as we've documented, for one example in:
West Virginia Coal Association | China Makes "Huge Profits" from Coal Liquefaction | Research & Development; concerning the news release: "China Coal Producer Reaps Huge Profits From CTL Project; Shenhua Group, China's largest coal producer, has made huge profits from its pilot coal-to-liquid (CTL) project in north China in the first three months of this year, a company executive said";
they - - despite what our press might, for whatever suspect reasons, prefer to have you believe - - know that it does make pretty good sense to convert Coal into things like Gasoline, and that it can be done profitably, to learn more about it.
Further, in:
DKRW prioritizes private funding for coal-to-gas plant; concerning the story: "DKRW Prioritizes Private Funding for Coal-to-Gas Plant; Star-Tribune; September 1, 2012; The company seeking to build what could become the first American coal-to-gas plant will seek private funding before dipping into public funds. DKRW Advanced Fuels, which is planning a coal-gasification plant near Medicine Bow, will gauge its international debt financing portfolio and then possibly return to the state and Carbon County for additional help, said Bob Kelly, executive chairman for the company. DKRW signed a key engineering and construction deal with Sinopec Engineering Group on Friday. The company is the engineering arm of Sinopec group, a giant, Chinese state-owned oil company, and has coal-gasification plant construction experience. The plant would be the first of its kind in Wyoming. A similar plant, planned by New York City-based TransGas Development Systems, is under construction in West Virginia. The plant would use technology developed by General Electric to convert coal to gasoline. The project would be located at the site of the 180-million-ton Carbon Basin coal reserve, owned by Arch Energy";
we learn than some major US Corporations are involved in China's enlightened Coal conversion efforts, as well; with the above-noted General Electric, especially, as we've seen, for one example in:
West Virginia Coal Association | General Electric and China Forge Coal Conversion Partnership | Research & Development;
having gained extensive experience in, and having established reliable technology for, Coal conversion operations through their broad experience in China's Coal-to-Liquid Fuel industry.
Concerning all of the above, see also:
Arch Coal, Inc. | Welcome to Arch; "one of the world’s top five coal producers"; and:
Home - DKRW Energy; "DKRW Advanced Fuels is utilizing proven technologies to convert abundant and underutilized energy resources into market-competitive alternatives to petroleum products. Our vision is to develop, own and operate a worldwide portfolio of hydrocarbon conversion facilities, providing viable alternatives for a secure energy future. Gasification and liquefaction is a proven process for converting coal into market-competitive substitutes for petroleum products. These technologies have been used successfully in other parts of the world for more than 50 years".
One thing about China, though, is, that, although they are blessed with abundant Coal reserves, as can be learned via:
United States leads world in coal reserves - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA);
the United States of America still has a little more than twice the recoverable Coal reserves as does China.
Cognizant of that fact, the pragmatic Chinese, who have been loaning vast sums of money to the United States Government to keep it afloat, now seem to be placing bets on American Coal.
As indicated in the above-cited articles, "State Officials Plan Trips to Discuss Energy" and "DKRW Prioritizes Private Funding for Coal-to-Gas Plant", China, as represented by the "Sinopec group", is becoming involved in both the engineering and the financing of Wyoming's Medicine Bow Coal liquefaction enterprise.
More can be learned via excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"Chinese Firm to Build Coal-to-Liquids Plant in Wyoming
Chinese Firm to Build Coal-to-Liquids Plant in Wyoming (SNP, ACI) - 24/7 Wall St.
http://247wallst.com/2012/11/06/chinese-firm-to-build-coal-to-liquids-plant-in-wyoming-snp-aci/#ixzz2BY8jNB6x
(Note, that, due to some recent unreliability we've encountered in email transmission of electronic file links, we are duplicating some of our sources. We regret the, perhaps unneeded, redundancy.)
November 6, 2012
China Petrochemical Corporation, a state-controlled company best known as Sinopec will build an advanced coal-to-gasoline plant near Medicine Bow, Wyoming, that is expected to produce 21,000 barrels a day of gasoline when it goes into service in 2014. The company that will own and operate the plant is DKRW Advanced Fuels, a privately held firm that includes among its owners Arch Coal Inc., which will supply coal to the project.
(We know that many among our readers will be unfamiliar with the above "Sinopec". But, as seen in:
SINOPEC; "China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group is a state-owned company solely invested by the State, functioning as a state-authorized investment organization in which the state holds the controlling share. Headquartered in Beijing, Sinopec Group has a registered capital of RMB 182 billion"; and:
Sinopec - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; "China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. ... Sinopec is the world's sixth biggest company by revenue. Sinopec Limited's parent, Sinpoec Group, is one of the major petroleum companies in China (and, their) business includes oil and gas exploration, refining, and marketing; production and sales of petrochemicals, chemical fibers, chemical fertilizers, and other chemical products; storage and pipeline transportation of crude oil and natural gas; import, export and import/export agency business of crude oil, natural gas, refined oil products, petrochemicals, and other chemicals. In 2011 it ranked as the 5th largest company in sales in Forbes Global 2000. In 2009, it was ranked 9th by Fortune Global 500 becoming the first Chinese corporation to make the top ten and in 2010 it was ranked 7th";
they are among the world's very largest business enterprises; and, if they wished to build a Coal liquefaction facility on the Moon, they could probably afford to do so.)
Sinopec was selected to build the plant because the company is expected to use “less pricey Chinese components and materials” to construct the plant ... . DKRW has estimated the project cost at $2 billion.
The Chinese firm told the WSJ, “We expect to offer the U.S. energy market high technology value and high-quality engineering services for both sides to achieve a mutually beneficial win-win.”
If China is now exporting engineering and construction expertise to the U.S., this represents a big change in the relationship between the two countries. Of course converting coal to liquid fuel is not exactly rocket science any more, but the Wyoming plant is counting on capturing, liquefying, and selling its carbon dioxide emissions for use with enhanced oil recovery techniques in the state’s oil fields. This plant, if it is built, represents a major coup for Sinopec and China."
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If they are, as above, able to sell any co-product "carbon dioxide emissions for use with enhanced oil recovery" in leaky old oil wells, more power to 'em if everybody's willing to discretely look away from the fact that most of the CO2 will be burped back up with the thus-recovered oil.
But, we remind you, that, as seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | China Coal Conversion Plant Recycle CO2 | Research & Development; concerning: "China Coal-to-Liquid Plant Will Use Algae-based CO2 Capture; 2011; A partnership in China that will bring together a Houston-based coal-to-liquids company and a major Chinese coal and construction firm will utilize a CO2 capture system powered by algae. Accelergy Corporation will provide the Yankuang Group with its trademarked TerraSync terrestrial sequestration system to capture carbon from the future facility in Erdos, an area in China’s Inner Mongolia Province. Along with the TerraSync system, Accelergy will also create a hybrid configuration of a microcatalytic coal liquefaction system in conjunction with a Fischer Tropsch system provided by Yankuang"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | China CO2 & Coal Co-Conversion | Research & Development; concerning:
"The Formation of CO2 and its Conversion in the Process of Coal Gasification; 2006; Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, People's Republic of China; Abstract: The carbon dioxide (CO2) formation mechanism and co-conversion of CO2 with coal was investigated in the process of coal gasification in a steam medium at atmospheric pressure under arc plasma conditions ... (and) results show that CO2 conversion reaches 88.6% ... which proves that co-conversion of CO2 and coal in a steam medium under plasma conditions might be a prospective way to utilize CO2 in the production of synthesis gas";
and, as we will be documenting further in future reports, China has been devising technologies which would seem to promise far more productive uses for any Carbon Dioxide that is co-produced.
And, all of the above echoes similar reports we've made, as in:
West Virginia Coal Association | "We Don't Need Oil" - Montana Governor Schweitzer | Research & Development; concerning the extended statement by Montana's Governor Schweitzer: "You Don't Need Oil To Make Fuel. Many things can be converted into ... gasoline, though not the gasoline we all know. This gasoline comes from coal. Though it sounds like alchemy, the means to turn coal into synthetic petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel has been around since 1913 and was used in America as early as 1928. Germany used "synfuel" to power most of its vehicles in World War II, and South Africa used the technology to overcome apartheid sanctions starting in the 1950s. Today, South Africa still produces 150,000 barrels a day of gasoline and 50,000 of diesel each day without a drop of oil, the only mass production of liquid-coal fuels in the world. At the same time, facing the uncertain future of the world oil market, large nations such as China and India have begun investing seriously in synthetic fuel production.
(With) our abundant coal, synfuel holds the promise of an American energy source, produced on American soil by American workers. In combination with other oil alternatives, synfuel could help us break our bonds with price-fixing dictators and give us a push down the road of energy independence";
wherein another western state elected office holder, like Wyoming's Governor Matt Mead, as noted further above, expresses an independence of thought about Coal, and about Coal's potentials, that seems, apparently, to have been sadly lacking in recent years among the elected office holders in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the rest of very heart of United States Coal Country.
Or, maybe, it has more to do with our local news outlets.
For instance, as seen in our above excerpts from the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Star-Tribune, it's clear they have no problem, at all, openly discussing a Coal-to-Gas plant "under construction in West Virginia".
But, when is the last time anyone in West Virginia read an article about what would seem to us to be such a potentially crucial development, regardless of anyone's judgement about it's credibility, although last reports did have it as being, in fact, as was reported in Wyoming, "under construction", published by someone other than West Virginia's Charleston-based State Journal?
Seriously, folks:
Either we take our vast Coal Country human and natural resource potentials seriously, or we don't.
And, if we don't, then it's far, far past time we all learned to stop whining when someone else eats our lunch.
We can all rest comfortably in the fact, that, when we wake up in the morning and head off to minimum wage jobs, in what used to be Coal Country, we will be able to fill up on the way at the local Sinopec station, with gasoline made from Wyoming Coal - if all of it, the Coal and the Gasoline, isn't being shipped back to China.
