Posted on 03/19/2014 4:55:44 AM PDT by thackney
Clean Coal Technologies Inc. is almost ready to resume construction on a test plant in Oklahoma after being delayed by winter weather earlier this year.
Winter weather has delayed construction of a clean coal test plant, but officials with the company behind the technology remain confident in its success.
Clean Coal Technologies Inc. had hoped to have its pilot plant operational by early this year, but CEO Robin Eves said “one of the worst winters on record” put the project behind schedule.
“On many days, the workers simply could not reach the facility,” he said in a webcast last week.
Eves said the delay has added to the cost of the $3.6 million project, leaving the company scrambling to find some additional funding.
Eves did not indicate how much more money was need to finish the project in the March 11 webcast, but he said Tuesday that construction should begin again soon.
He had said the plant would be completed in about six weeks once construction resumes.
Once it is completed, the plant will be trucked to the AES Shady Point coal plant near Panama in Le Flore County. It will apply the New York-based company’s formula for improving coal as a fuel source by removing moisture and volatile material that lead to harmful emissions.
Eves said he visited the plant with a group of potential investors from South Korea before Christmas.
“This is really an engineering masterpiece,” he said. “The technology works. We know that, and therefore no proof of concept is necessary.”
Even though the plant is taking longer and costing more than expected, Eves is optimistic about its potential.
“This will be a showpiece for the company and the technology,” he said.
I used to hold some CCTI as a gamble (penny stock)... it seems to be a favorite for the “pump and dump”ers. They had some nondescript office in Coral Springs, FL... total boiler room outfit... no substance. Every pilot plantproject fell through... and the process itself seems to disobey the laws of Thermodynamics. (Washing and preheating coal to capture the pollutants? Uh, right).
I thought that was called coke.
However, it should be noted that right now anybody who comes up with an effective way to make coal "clean" will make a truly immense amount of money.
Which means a lot of smart people are working on it with a lot of resources behind them.
I realize there's no doubt a simple reason I don't understand, but it's always seemed to me it ought to be possible to capture the CO2, remove the O and have the carbon in the form of something non-volatile like graphite. Then use it to make pencils.
I thought it was called coal to gas. There are several of these new clean coal technologies.
As for turning CO2 into graphite(CO2 mineralization), the plant being built in Texas(Skyonic-Skymine) transforms CO2 into baking soda. This is being built next to a cement kiln.
When coal is burned, a percentage of heat is lost to the latent heat required to push any water in the coal through a phase change(drying the coal)... so what their process does is dries the coal... up front.
One way or another this requires the same amount of energy... you don't get anything for nothing in the real world (though you can hope for change all you want).
Now the other problem is that as coal that is unearthed sits, it outgasses the volitiles. Heating up the coal (like, as in making coke) removes this component of the fuel as well. In my personal experience, I have been forced to hand fire steam locomotives with old coal that had been sitting for 10 years and let me tell you, it was like trying to burn rocks... clinker city, all ash, had to overfire and rake the fire like crazy... it kicked my ass.
I personally think that the CCTI process is rather flimflamish. I don't know Robin Ewes personally, and I have nothing against what they are trying to do... (though I am sure part of their business model weighs on the ability to soak up millions of dollars in crony capitalist handouts from the Federal Government... but it's like I said, it's all thermodynamics. If you have to expend energy up front to dry and "clean" the fuel, in the end, the energy balance is no better and certainly not equal to or greater than the net results of just digging the coal out of the ground and burning it, releasing the CO2 for plants to reabsorb and, via photosynthesis, reconvert into coal in a "sustainable" natural, ongoing process that has been happening for hundreds of millions of years.
The ticker symbol is CCTC... it's a pinksheet stock (trades as an OTC stock)... even if you assume a position now... if the "Oh, look! Shiney things!" market shoves it up to 7.5 cents, you'll need to find a sucker to buy your shares. That's why people get on the boards and talk up the stock... to generate hype so they can unload it.
I unloaded all of my CCTC years ago... Made some money on it... lost some. Your milage may vary, caveat emptor, &c., &c., &c.
There’s no such thing as clean coal; the left said so. < /sarc >
Sounds like hopey changey hokum to me. TANSTAAFL.
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
The laws of thermodynamics shall not be broken... even by obastard and his little clinging, treasury robbing fiend friends.
This and just about every other “clean” initiative from wind farms, solar, DC power lines, clean coal, low sulfur gasoline and lower sulfur diesel to the rest of the EPA are KILLING US ALL.
We are a non competitive, non productive nation of mostly slugs wishing for a handout and a free lunch.
AFter the war the formula and plant blue prints were brought to America and were archived at Texas A&M where they were remained till 1977 until they were rediscovered.
Coal Gasification plants were constructed and my nephew, a Chemical Engineer, has worked at the Beulah NOrth Dakota plant since 1989.
They produce natural gas, helium and materials for the production of soil fertilizer. The CO2 is sold to Pepsi and Coca Coal for carbonate their drinks. This is GREEN energy and it is estimated that there is 100 years of Green energy in the coal fields that extend from North Dakota to Texas!
Aren't we lucky that the Obama Energy department will investigae and developed this technology by 2020. Meanwhile the FAA has been directed to improve on the Wright Brothers gadget while the Model T Ford is also on the drawing boards!
Phewey!
The Fischer–Tropsch process was developed in 1925 at the Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung (for Coal Research) which started in 1912. This was before the Nazi Party came to significant power. The Nazi Party was actually banned from 1924 to 1925.
by 1943 the Entire economy was run on Coal Gasification.
No. Fischer–Tropsch production accounted for an estimated 9% of German war production of fuels and 25% of the automobile fuel.
Effective we have had for a long time. Economic without subsidies is the problem.
True. Should have said cost-effective, I guess.
That is the challenge.
Cost effective could be made today through regulation. EPA just keeps adding regulation to everything else until they all cost more than current clean coal technology.
Sometimes it feels like that is the goal...
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