Coal Gasification May be the Chemical Industry's Salvation

 
More discussion of US coal's abilities to supply our chemical processing and liquid fuel needs.
 
An excerpt:
 
"At the Chemical Purchasing Summit, organized by ICIS and PurchasingFTI Consulting, said: "Coal-to-liquids and coal gasification plants can be readily adapted to produce an exceptionally broad range of feedstock. This potentially provides a major competitive advantage for US industry." magazine, which took place in September, Andy Weissman, senior energy adviser at the New York City-based

Weissman is bullish on coal's abilities. "Coal is the only resource that can effectively fill the energy supply gap. It is the most abundant US energy resource," he said. "This can be developed at a reasonable cost with ultra-low emissions, especially if the development of carbon-capture and storage technology is sped up."

There are about 227bn tonnes of coal reserves in the US, or 27% of the global total. Weissman notes that this is equivalent to more than 500 years of current Middle East imports."

 

Australia


 
 
Not a lot of hard info herein, but a very recent story with some leads which could direct you to additional, interesting, data.
 
One intriguing excerpt, though:
 
"Blackham Resources Ltd is evaluating the development of the Scaddan Energy Project into one of Australia’s premier coal to liquid (CTL) operations, to produce an ultra clean diesel product and other CTL products."
 
"One of Australia's premier ...CTL operations". In other words, there are others (i.e. Linc, perhaps, previously documented), of varying potentials and productivity.
 
And, the raw material is lignite, with lower BTU content, and higher inert "junk", than WV bituminous. 
 

USDOD & Alaska


 
 
Should the link not open, the article appeared in yesterday's Alaska Journal, and should be readily available through a quick search.
 
But, an excerpt:

"The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency is developing a pilot program to supply a blend of alternative fuels to Air Force and Army units operating in Alaska, officials with the agency said March 11 at a conference in Anchorage.

Mark Iden, deputy operations director of the Defense Energy Support Center, a part of the Defense Logistics Agency, said his agency is soliciting proposals from industry to supply a 50-50 blend of alternative and conventional fuels.

The agency wants the alternative fuels made through the Fischer-Tropsch process, a chemical process that converts carbon-based material like biomass, natural gas or coal to high-quality liquid products."

There have been other, spurious, reports that the Air Force ended their coal-to-jet fuel program. Obviously not true.

Remember: A Dept. of Defense under secretary referred, last summer, when speaking in Pittsburgh, to West Virginia as the, potentially, "new Kuwait", based on her coal reserves and the reality of coal-to-liquid technologies.

Tata, JSPL Cannot Divert Surplus Coal from CTL Projects


We had earlier informed you of the separate Tata and Jindal Steel consortiums' coal-to-liquid fuel ventures in India.
 
The Indian government, apparently, views coal liquids to be so strategically valuable that they will not allow coal from the major deposits they have assigned to liquid conversion efforts to be diverted to other uses.
 
An excerpt:
 
“Tata, JSPL cannot divert surplus coal from CTL projects
 
NEW DELHI: Tata Sons-Sasol joint venture Strategic Energy Technology Systems and Jindal Steel and Power will not be able to divert surplus coal from the promotional mining blocks allotted for $18 billion projects to convert coal into liquid petroleum, sources said."
 

Governor Bobby Jindal | State of Louisiana

 
The following is excerpted from Louisiana Gov. Jindal's web site, linked above:
 
"The renewable synthetic diesel fuel produced by Dynamic Fuel (a Tyson Foods - Syntroleum JV - JtM) will be sold in the U.S. within the existing diesel fuel distribution system.  Its ultra-clean properties are expected to make it a popular choice for conventional diesel producers to use as a blending fuel to help conventional diesel meet minimum government emission standards.
 
About Syntroleum (NASDAQ:SYNM - News)
Syntroleum Corporation owns the Syntroleum® Process for converting synthesis gas derived from biomass, coal, natural gas and other carbon-based feedstocks, and the Bio-Synfining™ technology for converting animal fat and vegetable oil feedstocks into synthetic liquid hydrocarbons. The Company plans to use its technology to develop and participate in synthetic and renewable fuel projects utilizing the Company’s technology in a number of global locations."
 
And, we submit this, from India:
 
 
An excerpt:
 
"JSPL (Jindal Steel) said the project requires 30 MTPA washed coal to produce 80,000 barrels per day (4.0 MMTPA) crude, using Indirect Coal Liquification technology developed by Lurgi of Germany for the first time in India. It added that the middlings and rejects would be used for generating 1,350MW power."
 
(Note: Once the coal is liquefied to "crude", by the Lurgi process, it is converted to diesel via Fischer-Tropsch, according to reports - JtM)
 
 
Oh, one more excerpt about the Jindal Steel project:
 
"The proposed technology is extremely environment friendly, as the crude produced by the process will have very low Polyaromatics. Carbon dioxide will be captured and used in fertilizer industries/for inert purposes. The ash generated will be used for road building, brick making, cement manufacturing and back filling of mines. The technology involves almost 100% recovery of sulphur as elemental sulphur, which will be used in fertilizer industry."
 
Again as we've been saying, the by-products of coal conversion, the "pollutants", should be seen as bonuses, not as deficits. If we put our minds to it, we can actually use them.