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Company pitches coal-to-gasoline plan to lawmakers
Canadian Business ^ | 2/11/2012 | ap

Posted on 02/26/2012 8:22:10 AM PST by tobyhill

The head of a Texas company that plans to build a plant in Carbon County to turn coal into gasoline told state lawmakers Saturday that the project promises not only jobs and tax revenues but also would help the nation produce more energy domestically.

Robert Kelly, chairman of DKRW Advanced Fuels of Houston, addressed the Legislature's Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee in Cheyenne. He said the project promised to help national security and energy security.

"Where do you want to get your oil from? Where do you want to get your gas from?" Kelly said. "Do you want to get it from Iran? Do you want to get it from Venezuela, or do you want to get it from Wyoming?"

DKRW proposes to build its plant near Medicine Bow, a town of roughly 300 people about 100 miles west of Cheyenne. The company proposes to transform coal mined underground at the site into 10,600 barrels of gasoline per day, which it says it has already contracted to sell in the Denver market.

(Excerpt) Read more at canadianbusiness.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coaltogas; coaltogasoline; syntheticfuel

1 posted on 02/26/2012 8:22:13 AM PST by tobyhill
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To: tobyhill

Coal to gas or algae to diesel? Guess who gets fed money?

BTW, South Africa, after the apartheid boycotts, moved to syn gas. We have enough coal and shale to supply centuries of energy.


2 posted on 02/26/2012 8:29:41 AM PST by umgud (No Rats, No Rino's)
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To: tobyhill
The head of a Texas company that plans to build a plant in Carbon County to turn coal to gas

Not new technology. The Germans were using a coal to gas blend in the 30's and 40's.

3 posted on 02/26/2012 8:31:57 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: tobyhill

a feller who is now retired from the energy business, once told me that he had worked for a company who made coal into what sounded like energy pellets, in the 70’s during the oil shortage.....sounded like something about the size of a football, but shaped like a 3 dimensional slot. He thought the technology led to oil loosening up....


4 posted on 02/26/2012 8:34:00 AM PST by stickywillie (a corrupt parallel universe exists beside our wonderful Constitution)
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To: stickywillie

It’ll never get through the EPA as long as the EPA exist.


5 posted on 02/26/2012 8:37:08 AM PST by tobyhill
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To: tobyhill
Ubama does not like coal because Ubama does not like cheap energy.

Anybody who proposes a method of creating cheap energy can expect a visit from Eric Holder's people.

6 posted on 02/26/2012 8:38:30 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the fascists.)
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To: umgud

Nazi used several coal to liquids processes to convert
coal into gasoline or diesel fuel

Bergius Process

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergius_process

Fisher-Tropsch Process

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process

Problem has been in high capital investment

Remember when worked for EXXON had huge library filled with
studies of coal to liquids

Only ecomonically viable when oil above $70/barrell (this
was 1990s)

When can pump oil out of ground for $.50 barrell in Saudi Arabia was not fesible


7 posted on 02/26/2012 8:39:32 AM PST by njslim
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To: tobyhill

North Dakota has been turning cheap lignite coal into natural gas for years. I remember the environmental opposition way back when, claims of acid rain, blah blah blah.

The numbers below come from a North Dakota informational website but I don’t know the significance of the quantities.

“In 1981, the federal government approved a $2 billion loan for construction of America’s first commercial-scale synthetic gas plant near Beulah. Today, the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, as it is called, is owned by the Dakota Gasification Company and converts 18,000 tons of lignite into 160 million cubic feet of substitute natural gas daily.”


8 posted on 02/26/2012 8:53:23 AM PST by Fightin Whitey
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To: Don Corleone

Yes, Coal Gassification was tried here, in the ‘70’s. It is costly, has a great deal of toxic waste to deal with, generates huge amounts of sulfur and Carbon Dioxide. They scapped the plan long ago.

And of course, it would have to be subsidized by the taxpayers, very much like Ethanol.


9 posted on 02/26/2012 8:58:05 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (If you come to a fork in the road, take it........)
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

There was a guy out in Utah a couple of years ago that was producing diesel from coal. The process produced almost no carbon emmissions and was very eco friendly. Sadly he was encroaching on 2 of my fiancee’s gassification patents and several others. Now he is in jail for patent fraud. The gassification can be done cleanly.


10 posted on 02/26/2012 9:13:40 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP
And of course, it would have to be subsidized by the taxpayers, very much like Ethanol.

Yep. If this were such a game-changer, he'd be able to raise his capital in the private market. That he needs several hundred million from the government says all we need to know.

11 posted on 02/26/2012 9:36:10 AM PST by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.)
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To: tobyhill
Gasoline is a hydrocarbon. Coal is mostly carbon, almost no hydrogen. To convert coal into gasoline requires a source of hydrogen. The best source is water. Unfortunately, the regions of the country that have lots of low-sulfur coal also are short of water. I doubt this conversion can be done on a large enough scale to matter. Either we haul coal from where it is to where the water is, or pipe the water from where it is to where the coal is. Either will be expensive.
12 posted on 02/26/2012 9:39:29 AM PST by JoeFromSidney (New book: RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY. A primer on armed revolt. Available form Amazon.)
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To: Georgia Girl 2; All
The gassification can be done cleanly.

To all the Poo-Poo-er's out their that say this can't be done...

Google some of the Patents and or R & D going on with the Fischer Tropsch Process. It has come along way since the German's did it.

IMHO this should be a national security priority with "JP" fuels from this Conversion dedicated to our Military (With it's NATO JP Fuel Requirement) and our Domestic Airline Fleet.

13 posted on 02/26/2012 10:12:50 AM PST by taildragger (( Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: umgud

Coal to gas or algae to diesel? Guess who gets fed money?

__________________________________________________________

All the above without Fed $$$$, let the marketplace and innovators decide.


14 posted on 02/26/2012 11:46:34 AM PST by Leto (Damn shame Sarah didn't run the Presidency was there for the taking)
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To: taildragger

“IMHO this should be a national security priority with “JP” fuels from this Conversion dedicated to our Military (With it’s NATO JP Fuel Requirement) and our Domestic Airline Fleet”

I hate to tell you that the govt could care less. My fiancee’ went to DC and met with the Feds trying to get them interested in his stuff. Couldn’t get the time of day.


15 posted on 02/26/2012 11:50:15 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: njslim
Only ecomonically viable when oil above $70/barrell (this was 1990s)

Heard the same crap about recovering oil from shale. The target price was something like $40/bbl. Where were these guys when oil was trading for over $100/bbl? I guess we are starting to make progress w/ shale but it's not large scale and doesn't seem to be affecting prices (yet).

Regards,
GtG

16 posted on 02/26/2012 12:52:56 PM PST by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
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To: tobyhill

What kind of silly game is this? We can make gasoline out of anything we want except for the oil it’s naturally and relatively easily made out of?

Calling Michael Savage. “Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder”.


17 posted on 02/26/2012 12:55:44 PM PST by RoadTest (There is one god, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.)
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To: tobyhill

The politics of Washington, D.C. Is a filthy pit of corruption and crime.

I know. I get the Captain Obvious suit to wear today.


18 posted on 02/26/2012 12:58:16 PM PST by RoadTest (There is one god, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.)
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To: Gandalf_The_Gray

hehe

Alternative energy is, well, energy intensive to produce. Meaning its costs will rise along with any aggregate energy costs. Plenty of opportunities on the fringes of the energy business, but large-scale civilization-making energy going to remain somewhat traditional.

When THE big breakthrough comes, it won’t be from any kind of government manipulation.


19 posted on 02/26/2012 1:03:19 PM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: taildragger

A Lot of morons ,some on this thread say this can’t be done. It can : the only thing stopping it and this company is the Obama and or government entities like the EPA.


20 posted on 02/27/2012 10:55:44 AM PST by rurgan (Make all laws have an expiration date of 3 years. too many laws is the problem)
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