Scientists find way to make cheap gas from coal

cnews ^ | February 22, 2010 | not given

[caveat emptor]

Researchers in Texas say they have found a way of cutting the cost of producing gasoline by two thirds, taking advantage of the lowest grade of coal available - one that is abundant beneath the Canadian prairies.

A new refining process being perfected at the University of Texas at Arlington can turn the low-cost lignite coal, also known as brown coal, into oil at a fraction of the cost of importing crude oil from abroad.

[JSteff]

Up next... Cold Fusion...

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Its called the Fischer–Tropsch process. The USAF is making aviation fuel out of this process

[HiTech RedNeck]

The biggest problem will be OPEC, who will undercut any such attempts.

[Milton Miteybad]

I agree, but the article says that the lignite coal is in Canada - not Texas. Seems that our boys and girls in Arlington are only responsible for developing the process.

Still good news.


Actually, Texas has ample reserves of lignite in an area coincidentally known as the "Lignite Belt," running from Titus County (Mount Pleasant) in northeast Texas, southwest through the east-central portion of the state down to Bexar County (San Antonio). There are working lignite mines in Titus, Harrison, Limestone, Freestone and Grimes Counties, to name a few.

[DGHoodini]

If it turns out to be true, feasable, economical,and actually developed to industrial production levels, we sure could start putting a pretty big daily dent in our national deficit, , with all the petrodollars that would no longer be flowing out of our country every day. See how much Iran can get for a barrel of oil when all of the sudden the market is awash with all the oil we are no longer buying.

[1010RD]

Let’s encourage them! $28/bbl of oil is good for growth.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

I've got to agree. Petro-energy is available domestically in abundance, in many forms. However, the enviro-fascists will do everything in their power to prevent its exploitation. They want us to build more windmills and solar panels, technologies that have failed to yield significant results even after decades of research.

I'm sure there is some kind of desert rat or armadillo that is endangered out there on the Texas prarie.

[Darth Reardon]

we sure could start putting a pretty big daily dent in our national deficit

Well, we COULD do that. Or, we could point to it as a source of new revenue, extrapolate the price of oil to explode in the future, and use that as an excuse to borrow like crazy so we can have more pork.

[PeatownPaul]

There is a large ex-DOE facility in North Dakota that is rendering coal to more useful chemical compounds. One of the most profitable is plain old CO2 that is piped across the border to the oilfields in Saskatchewan to enhance tertiary recovery in conventional oil fields.

[Darth Reardon]

Headline: “Scientists find way...”

Article: “Researchers in Texas say they have found a way...”

I think what we’re seeing is the death of good journalism, Lynn.

[chuckles]

The problems with this will be high sulfur coal as a pollutant.

The process has been known from the turn of the century and used widely in countries that didn't have access to oil.It is an energy intensive process, so that was where the cost was. I though maybe they should make it with solar furnaces in Arizona or somewhere like that. If you do some "googling", you can even find a place that will sell you a unit to make it yourself if you have access to coal. The one I saw before would fit on an 18 wheeler and could be hauled anywhere.

[caveat emptor]

I’m quite confident that the Obama Syndicate, at the behest of their Saudi Wahabbi masters, will pass a bill to make production sale, use or even possession of this synthetic fuel illegal just about the time they are ready to start production.

Oick. OB is just a fad, like yo-yos, the bunny hop, hula hoops, Atkins diets, and so on. He'll be gone before too long, albeit not soon enough for most of us.

This seems to me a major breakthrough, ie. cutting the cost of producing gasoline by 2/3. And in the medium run, OB can't stop it, notwithstanding vetos, executive orders, etc. If he manages to steal the 2012 election, then we'll have to wait till 2016.

[Windflier]

Actually, Texas has ample reserves of lignite in an area coincidentally known as the "Lignite Belt,"...

That's great news for Texas, considering this recent technical breakthrough. Thank you.

[element92]

what is actually new here?

[Bernard Marx]

Converting coal and bitumen to oil is already close to being competitive with pumped oil. It doesn’t take much of an advancement in technology to make it economically feasible.

If the EnviroNazis wanted "economically feasible" fossil fuels they'd quit obstructing development of our own oil and gas resources. They'll continue trying to block anything but inefficient Green Energy from solar and wind. Economics doesn't even enter into their thinking. They want fewer human beings "by any means necessary."

Zero's recent comments about encouraging nuclear development is pure BS. It's a cynical heat feint, announced the same week the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository was cancelled. The unions will profiteer from construction projects that will be endlessly delayed by Browner's EPA and other government agencies. The cost overruns will be astromical.

[Titus-Maximus]

**The biggest problem will be OPEC**

Wrong - the biggest problem will be the Democratic Party that will try to block this. They are the lapdogs of the leftist environmental human-haters, who see this as another CO2 orgy and the prolonging of the internal combustion engine. The human-haters are also seeking to block the new fracking technology that has opened our vast shale natural gas reserves - under the facade that it pollutes our water supply when in fact they really want to stop the production of hydrocarbons wherever they can.

[What is interesting is that Middle Eastern money is finding its way into the leftist green movement to shut down oil and gas exploration in North America which keeps the the price of their oil high. So the Dems, the human-haters and the Islamofascists are conspiring against America. What else is new? Anyone want to write the screenplay.]

I say CO2 is good for plant growth, let it rock.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Speaking from a view of past history. OPEC boosted oil prices up, Texas began drilling, OPEC yanked oil prices back down, Texas fields became ghost areas. None of which was related to how much it actually cost OPEC to drill the oil.

In a tenuous economy people don’t want to risk losing money on a yo-yo. A very generous conservative angel will be needed in order to buffer the risk.

[caveat emptor]

what is actually new here?

The article doesn't give technical details. What's new to me is the low cost of oil.

"A new refining process being perfected at the University of Texas at Arlington can turn the low-cost lignite coal, also known as brown coal, into oil at a fraction of the cost of importing crude oil from abroad."

And here's an article from a google search on (engineering news articles +"oil from lignite coal"). June 17, 2008. The article in this post seems to be an update. (http://www.uta.edu/engineering/news/mediareleases/0708/UWire)

University of Texas-Arlington researchers are hoping to use a prevalent substance found in Texas to reduce future fuel costs — coal.

Funded by the UT System Technology Ignition Fund and the Department of Energy, several UTA engineering professors plan to customize a process in July of converting lignite, a lower grade coal, to oil and have the system in place by August, said Richard Billo, engineering research associate dean.

“In a year or two, we will be able to make a positive impact on the fuel process,” Billo said. “We anticipate gasoline prices will top out between $6-$8 in the next few years before they start coming down.”

A patent pending micro-reactor, which was invented by engineering associate professor Brian Dennis, will help make creating oil from lignite coal faster, smoother and less costly process.

“We are doing experiments to see if that micro-reactor can accelerate a slow process,” Dennis said.

His micro-reactor will be used during a fraction of the process, and he said he hopes it will speed up one of the slower parts of refining.

Dennis, who has worked on the micro-reactor for two years, originally created the reactor for his research in biodiesel and has only recently tried to convert it to lignite coal.

Several years ago, Republican congressman Joe Barton asked some university engineering researchers if they could figure out a way to make a micro-reactor for coal lignite. Billo said Barton wanted to do something about growing gas prices and helped the university get a grant for research.

“With gas prices rising at record rates, we should be working to unlock American energy supplies,” Barton said in an e-mail statement.

“UTA is playing a big role in this process. The exciting work being done by researchers in the Engineering Department at UTA to turn coal into oil could revolutionize the way we generate energy in this country.”

Billo teamed up with West Virginia University because it had an effective system called “The West Virginia Process,” which refines coal through the same process crude petroleum goes through, said Elliot Kennel, West Virginia University carbon product research coordinator.

“Our process is not the only process,” Kennel said. “But we think it is one of the simplest and one of the cheapest.”

By applying the micro-reactor and tailoring “The West Virginia Process” to adapt to Texas’ lignite coal, the researchers hope to improve the current process and lower the cost of oil, Billo said.

Billo said he hopes to build a factory to process the “plentiful supply” of lignite in Texas by next summer.

“The [oil] prices will go up, in my opinion, until we bleed ourselves to death or find a substitute. I think we can produce at $30 per barrel,” Kennel said. “The perception has been that government needs to protect the public from new sources of energy.”

[backhoe]

Remember this from election time?

November, 2008:

Coal Industry in Extreme Danger: Obama/Biden Caught on Tape! (PA, OH, WV, VA, KY, MT, WY, TN)

[thackney]

Texas, along with Montana and North Dakota, have significant lignite coal reserves.

When I worked at a Texas Electric Utility, we referred to it as “dirt that burns”.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/reserves/reserves.html