Posted on 08/26/2005 2:59:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
HELENA, Montana (Reuters) - Montana's governor wants to solve America's rising energy costs using a technology discovered in Germany 80 years ago that converts coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.
The Fischer-Tropsch technology, discovered by German researchers in 1923 and later used by the Nazis to convert coal into wartime fuels, was not economical as long as oil cost less than $30 a barrel.
But with U.S. crude oil now hitting more than double that price, Gov. Brian Schweitzer's plan is getting more attention across the country and some analysts are taking him very seriously.
Montana is "sitting on more energy than they have in the Middle East," Schweitzer told Reuters in an interview this week.
"I am leading this country in this desire and demand to convert coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. We can do it in Montana for $1 per gallon," he said.
"We can do it cheaper than importing oil from the sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks that we're bringing it from right now."
The governor estimated the cost of producing a barrel of oil through the Fischer-Tropsch method at $32, and said that with its 120 billion tons of coal -- a little less than a third of the U.S total -- Montana could supply the entire United States with its aviation, gas and diesel fuel for 40 years without creating environmental damage.
An entry level Fischer-Tropsch plant producing 22,000 barrels a day would cost about $1.5 billion, he said.
The Democratic governor of this Republican state said he had met with Shell president John Hofmeister, General Electric's CEO Jeff Immelt, as well as officials from the Department of Defense, and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to discuss his proposals.
Schweitzer added that the recently passed federal energy bill includes an 80 percent loan guarantee for a Fischer- Tropsch plant.
A former cattle rancher who lived for seven years in Saudi Arabia working on irrigation projects, Schweitzer is also seeking energy deals with other states, especially California.
California "says they need 25,000 megawatts of electricity during the next ten years," he said. "We'll give you a delivered price and we'll forward contract that for the next 20 years.
"Transmission companies from England, from Canada, from all over America are coming to my office and saying 'we'll build these transmission lines as soon as you have the contracts to build the generation."'
---he's a little low oon his price but on the right page--need lots of nukes for electrical power generation too--
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to realise we could turn coal into fuel.
The technology is old and works.
Ofcourse right when this plant starts to open the Saudi's will lower their price to try to put them out of business , we cvant fall for that one. We need to be self sufficient for oil in this country and tell the others to Kiss it. Just Kiss it.
Not necessarily, when they can keep selling their crude to China, India and elsewhere for $60-plus a barrel.
Not a new idea - even here.
Kiln-in-Gas bankrupted the great Allis Chalmers company in the early 1980's.
This is something entirely different I take from oil shale - which I believe is far more expensive to process.
--yes--totally different--
Schweitzer said Montana has a huge advantage over other states because it owns the Otter Creek reserves, which the federal government traded to it after President Clinton halted a proposed gold mine near Yellowstone National Park
Eat your shorts lefties
And the thing most often missed: We aren't 1940 era Germans. Who knows if the wheels of capitalism were to roll with this concept how much cheaper and economical the method for conversion can be made.
"environmentalists" will oppose this, too.
Put the H2-er's out of work
Sasol produces 1,5 billion barrels of synthetic fuel from coal in fifty years more >>>
24 August 2005
Sasol has produced almost 1,5 billion barrels of synthetic fuel from about 800 million tonnes of coal since the first sample of synthetic oil from coal was produced fifty years ago at its Sasolburg plant near Johannesburg in South Africa on 23 August 1955.
Regarded as a world technology leader in the production of coal-to-liquids (CTL), Sasol operates the world's only commercial scale synthetic plant at Secunda, where it produces 150 000 barrels of liquid fuel per day.
Lots of coal is a mile deep and hard to mine. Drill down to the formation, introduce hot hydrogen and the right catalyst, and get oil and hydrocarbon gases up. Fischer-Tropsch in situ.
You got it.
Extract all the "Coal Bed Methane" you can then do similiar but hotter.
Was thinking something along the line of Frasch Process, where they pump superheated water down the hole and product comes out.
Maybe use the CBM to fuel the thing.
Your thoughts?
Alaska has half the country's coal reserves. Much of it is wet coal, and low sulfur. The wet coal can be converted by hydrothermal processing or hot-water drying, which yields a liquid coal-water fuel that can be burned almost like oil. Some roads would have to be built to get at the coal.
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