Comparative Analysis of Costs of Alternative Coal Liquefaction Processes - Energy & Fuels (ACS Publications) 
 

We have previously documented West Virginia University's participation in China's ambitious plans to establish a major industry based on the conversion of coal into liquid fuels and chemicals.
 
WVU and the Chinese principals have not neglected the economics of the coal conversion industry, as they have worked on refining the technology to effectively and efficiently accomplish the transmutation.
 
As evidence that the conversion of coal into liquid fuels has the true potential to be commercially viable, we present the enclosed article, published jointly by WVU and Shenua, a Chinese coal mining corporation heavily involved in China's coal-to-liquid conversion industry.
 
An excerpt:
 
"Comparative Analysis of Costs of Alternative Coal Liquefaction Processes
 
Qingyun Sun* and Jerald J. Fletcher
Natural Resource Analysis Center, West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6108, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506
Yuzhuo Zhang and Xiangkun Ren
Shenhua Group Corporation, Shenhua Tower, 22 Xibinhelu, Andingmen, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100011, China
Abstract
As the cost of production is a key determinant of long-term viability, developing methods that reduce the cost of direct coal liquefaction has posed a challenge to scientists and industrial organizations worldwide. This paper summarizes recent developments in technology and processes and explores the overall economic competitiveness of direct coal liquefaction using the China Shenhua Group Corp. (Shenhua) project as a case study. A comparative analysis of the costs and economic competitiveness of the Shenhua approach and a variety of conceptual designs outlined in U.S. studies is presented. The comparison shows that the economic competitiveness of direct coal liquefaction is dependent on production costs that consist primarily of raw material, operation and management, and capital costs. Capital cost is shown to be a primary determinant of the cost of production. The relative competitiveness of the plant and supporting facilities depends heavily on the economic alternatives relevant to a particular plant site. Initial results indicate that the Shenhua direct coal liquefaction plant is relatively competitive given the cost allocation assumptions made. Long-term financial markets as well as safety and environmental factors are all issues that may affect the analysis and ultimate conclusions."

Carbon Recycling: An Alternative To Carbon Capture And Storage | CleanTechBrief 
 

The enclosed article is about yet another entrepreneurial start-up focused on the use of, actually not-so-new technology to reclaim Carbon Dioxide and recycle it into useful substances.
 
The transmutation of CO2 into formic acid and formates, as below, is, apparently, well-known and understood as there seem to be more than just this one enterprise now starting up with that goal as their focus.
 
Formic acid, and it's salts, might not seem too exciting, but the compounds do have industrial applications and, as noted in the excerpt, can be used in fuel cells in a variety of ways. Just another way coal and it's by-products can help with the transportation fuel crisis, we suggest.
 
The excerpts:.
 
""The market (for CO2 recycling and resultant products - JtM) is open for innovation," states Larry Kristof, CEO of Mantra Energy, a company gaining international recognition in the field of carbon recycling. "It is likely that governments will soon legally mandate carbon capture from industrial plants and there needs to be a cost-effective way to implement it," says Kristof." 
"Mantra's technology, named the electro-reduction of carbon dioxide (ERC), aims to take CO2 directly from industrial waste gases and convert it to formate salts and/or formic acid, both valuable chemicals used in a variety of industrial applications. Formic acid also has the potential to play a leading role in fuel cell development, both as a direct fuel and as a fuel storage material for on-demand release of hydrogen."
(We have previously described the process of Carbon Dioxide reduction, and noted that it can be accomplished via several processes - electrolytic, enzymatic, photolytic. Reducing CO2 into the very useful and reactive CO and pure, life-sustaining O2 is a well-known and understood chemical transaction.. - JtM)
"The ERC technology could provide a net revenue of up to US$700 per tonne of CO2 recycled, with an ROI previously forecast at 20% per year, depending on local costs."
(Worth doing, it would seem. - JtM)
"Carbon recycling options being developed globally vary considerably. The range includes the biochemical conversion of CO2 into algal biofuel, the thermochemical conversion into methanol and the biocatalytic or solar photocatalytic conversion of CO2 to fuels."
There are, plainly, a lot of options for dealing with our CO2 "problem", and dealing with it profitably. The problem, in fact, is beginning to sound to us like a huge opportunity - an opportunity to capitalize on our vast coal resources to solve all of our energy need, via full employment of coal and all of it's valuable by-products, and to lead us into an entirely new era of economic stability and environmental renewal.

Professor Sunggyu Lee's Research Program 
 
We herein introduce you to Sunggyu Lee, PhD., Professor of Chemical Engineering, at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. 
 
Some excerpts from his research site:
 
Combined Coal and Biomass Gasification. As a follow-up to his earlier research in coal char gasification, Dr. Lee's life-long interest in green processing of coal and clean utilization of natural resources, the group has been involved in gasification of coal and biomass for synthesis gas generation. While coal has a higher fixed carbon contents than biomass, biomass contains valuable hydrogen and higher moisture contents than coal with very low sulfur contents. Further, serious handicaps using biomass as process raw materials stemming mostly from associated logistical burdens, such as collection, gathering, transportation, and sustainable low-cost supply to the processing plants, can be offset by using biomass together with coal. The mixed gasification has more realistic merits of synergistic feed material compositions and co-beneficiation potentials, besides ultimately increasing the use of renewable resources. Dr. Lee's group has special interests in the areas of steam gasification, advanced oxidation, plasma gasification, molten salt gasification, and beneficial use of CO2-rich syngas.

Reactive Utilization of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide Rich Synthesis Gas. Dr.Lee and his graduate researchers have long been studying the roles of carbon dioxide in many reactive chemical processes involving synthesis gas. These processes include, but not limited to: (1) methanol synthesis, (2) single-stage dimethylether synthesis, (3) formic acid synthesis, and (4) hydrocarbon synthesis from synthesis gas. For example, his research elucidated the roles of carbon dioxide and water in methanol synthesis and also found that, to some extent, the two have interchangeable roles in the synthesis. Further, this research firmly established the beneficial roles of carbon dioxide in both stabilization of Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst and potential beneficial transition of the catalyst ingredient of ZnO to ZnCO3 in a CO2-rich environment. Also, it was found that the liquid-phase synthesis of methanol demands a substantially higher concentration of carbon dioxide as an optimal syngas composition than the vapor-phase synthesis of methanol. The latter fact serves as a good starting point for further exploitation of carbon dioxide reaction chemistry. If properly managed, carbon dioxide can be very effectively and beneficially utilized in the reaction chemistry, thus claiming that carbon dioxide is not hopeless in its reactive conversion, rather is full of promise.

Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Hydrocarbons . As briefly mentioned above, Dr. Lee's group and collaborators are investigating various chemical routes and associated catalysis that will lead to a major breakthrough of utilizing carbon dioxide as a reacting raw material for production of target hydrocarbons, thus establishing or helping establish the renewablility of carbon dioxide. Major collaborative efforts in this global research agenda are currently under way.
Mike, we introduce you to Dr. Lee to emphasize, if it does need more emphasis from us, that coal (and biomass) conversion to liquid fuels and chemical industry raw materials, and the practical utilization of the valuable by-products of coal use, such as Carbon Dioxide, are well-known, widely-understood technologies that are undergoing continued refinement and improvement in many commercial, academic and government venues.
 
And, it's odd to think of something like "the renewability of carbon dioxide" as being desireable, isn't it?

US ENCOAL® Mild Coal Gasification to Oil Plant CCT | BioEnergy Lists: Gasifiers & Gasification 
 

 
This dispatch is to introduce the Encoal (R) Coal-to-Oil project, sponsored by the US DOE.
 
DOE reports on this Coal-to-Liquid demonstration project are available, but only in PDF format, which is difficult for us to manage.
 
Via separate dispatches, we will transmit links to those DOE files, but, from the link enclosed herein, we present an excerpt, with a comment following:
 
"US ENCOAL® Mild Coal Gasification to Oil Plant CCT
 
Submitted by Tom Miles on Fri, 2008-10-24 18:23
Last updated October 24, 2008
US ENCOAL® Mild Coal Gasification to Oil Plant CCT
George R. Brigliadoro , SURE NRG LLC, October 2008
The Encoal Plant Process 100% of the Coal to Clean Energy Leaving Zero Leftover Wasted or Hazardous Materials
1. Produces ½ Barrel of Oil Per Ton of Coal
2. Produces ½ Ton of High Rank Coal Per Ton of Low Rank Coal
3. Can Process 100% of Used Tire Rubber
4. Produces 600 Barrels of Light Crude Oil and 400 Tons of Carbon Black from 1,000 Tons of Tires
(We had earlier suggested that discarded tires could be a co-feed, with coal, for an appropriately-designed coal-to-liquid fuel facility, and cited some references to that effect. This citation seems to further affirm that assertion.- JtM)
Engineering is Complete to Produce 15,000 to 30,000 Tons Per Day
1. Producing up to 15,000 Barrels of Oil Per Day and 15,000 Tons of High Rank Coal Per Day
2. A 1,000 Ton Per Day Plant is for Sale
3. The Engineering fore 15,000 to 30,000 Tones Per Day is also Available
4. Technology License Agreements are Available
5. Personal are Available to Assist in Construction, Engineering and Plant Start-UP"
Mike, this represents another opportunity for coal to serve both our economic need  for a domestic supply of affordable liquid fuel, and our environmental need to clean up and recycle a type of "waste" - used auto tires - that have not previously presented a truly attractive, or economically productive, option for doing so.
Coal-to-Oil, as we've been asserting, could, and should, be a "Green" that benefits both our economy and our environment, and it should be developed and promoted as such.