If you will recall, a major US coal mining company, Peabody, is one of the big players in China's ambitious plans to build a substantial Coal-To-Liquids conversion industry. Toward that end, they have partnered with a coal processing technology company, as follows:
An excerpt:
"The coal upgrading plant would utilize White Energy’s patented coal briquetting technology, a mechanical process that upgrades lower Btu coals.The upgraded coal can be used interchangeably with high rank thermal coal for a number of applications, including power generation, industrial processes and Btu Conversion, such as coal-to-gas and coal-to-liquids."
And, here's a little more about White Energy, specifically:
"White Energy Company Limited is a public company (ASX: WEC / OTCQX: WECFY) based in Sydney, Australia and focused on the commercialization of coal upgrading technologies. White Energy owns the global marketing rights to the White Coal Technology, a patented process that dehydrates lower grade coals to improve the heat energy content and quality of these coals. The White Coal Technology upgrades lower grade coals into higher grade briquettes with properties similar to higher grade and value bituminous coals."
"The White Coal Technology process will produce an upgraded coal from low energy sub-bituminous, lignite and brown coals. The White Coal Technology product has an energy content of 50% to 100% higher than the raw coal from which it is derived, but is otherwise chemically unchanged from the parent coal. The product is in a form that can be handled, stored and transported as conveniently and safely as normal bituminous coal."