Posted on 05/28/2007 2:13:14 AM PDT by Rick_Michael
BISMARCK, N.D. — A proposal for a North Dakota plant to convert coal into diesel and jet fuel has more than tripled in size, and the three companies behind it have formed a single company to oversee the project.......
The three companies initially had talked about a plant that could produce up to 10,000 barrels of fuel daily. Ward said that figure has been increased to 32,000 barrels daily, and the estimated cost of a plant has risen from $750 million to $2 billion.
We need demo plants sooner than 6 years. We need proof of concept
Proven technology. The Germans fueled their Tiger tanks in WWII with this. South Africa presently has many of these plants.
No, we don't. The "proof of concept" plants were done years back during the FIRST "oil crunch". Known technology.
There have been lots of advances in coal conversion. We can get more diesel out of it today. Coal conversion needs to be updated in new demonstration plants ASAP so we we have models to copy when the oil crunch hits full force
Fischer-Tropsch process
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_process
Basin Electric has been operating Great Plains One for 20 years. Granted, they bought it for a song from the DOE after the consortium that was originally formed to build and operate it was sunk on the $2 Billion it cost to build it in the early eighties. Basin had built a Baseline Power Plant next door (Antelope Valley One. It only has one customer, GP1.
Step 1. Declare that our energy plan will reduce carbon emissions by 20% within six years only if environmentalist lawsuits are dropped.
Step 2. Dare environmentalists to come up with a better plan.
Step 3. Build five of these plants, ten more nuke plants, three more refineries, drill ANWR.
Step 4. Give tax breaks to American companies who can build electric buses for public transportation and give them a six year window to do it in.
Step 5. Change the Kyoto provision to say that “all” countries will reduce carbon emissions by 20% within six years or they will not get US aid or be allowed to export to the US.
Step 6. Make Al Gore chairman of the energy commission.
How will using coal for fuel reduce carbon emissions?
“How will using coal for fuel reduce carbon emissions?”
Cleaner burning technology.
I believe you are mixing up sulfur and particulate emissions with CO2.
This process of creating a synthetic diesel fuel will not reduce CO2 emissions. It would probably generate more due to the energy required to first convert the coal to the liquid fuel. The liquid fuel is then going to produce CO2 as it is burned in the automobile engine.
And I tell you once again that no "new demonstration plants" are needed. Shell, DOW, and others built FULL-SCALE plants of this type back in the late 1980s under DOE auspices. The technology is already developed.
To quote from your own link:
"The FT process is an established technology and already applied on a large scale, although its popularity is hampered by high capital costs, high operation and maintenance costs, and the uncertain and volatile price of crude oil."
The thing that killed those plants was the "oil bust" in the early 1990's. I suspect that DOW, in particular, is regretting tearing that demo plant down.
The basic plant designs have not changed. Any "new techology" is in the catalysts used. Those HAVE changed significantly and become much more efficient. But implementing those doesn't require "new demonstration plants".
You are correct. The catalysts have been improved——>>> http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:DPgMYjvI4sQJ:www.greencarcongress.com/2006/04/new_tandem_cata.html+%22Fischer-Tropsch%22+efficiency&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us
One of my customers is breaking ground on one of these this year. In reality, it will be about a 5 year project before the whole plant is ready to rumble.
The engineering firm they are working with has built many of these.
Thank you for the clarification. I was thinking the coal burning was going to be used to produce electricity not fuel for cars.
My bad.
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