Nation's First Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Plant on Fast Track

Nation's First Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Plant on Fast Track

With almost daily announcements of initiatives aimed at chopping the price of fuel at America's pumps, West Virginia, one of the nation's most prolific coal-producing states, is making a serious move to leverage the lumpy black stuff for transportation fuel by fast-tracking construction of a commercial-scale plant utilizing a proven coal-to-gasoline process.

The coal-to-liquids plant, which will be the first in the U.S., could be up and running as quickly as three years from now, according to published reports, at a cost of some $800 million.

The planned facility is in Marshall County, located not far from the major cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland in the state's Northern Panhandle. It will be operated in a joint venture between Pittsburgh-based Consol Energy Inc. and Houston's Synthesis Energy Systems Inc.

The plant will employ standard coal and waste coal from a nearby Consol mine and could draw on coal from two other nearby mines.

The joint venture, called Northern Appalachia Fuels LLC, will employ SES's U-Gas process to gasify coal to synthetic gas then convert it to methanol, the primary product of the process.

Synthetic Energy then uses its proprietary methanol-to-gasoline process to convert the methanol to gasoline. The company is negotiating with Exxon-Mobil Research and Engineering to license the process.

The companies said the plant will be capable of annually producing up to 100 million gallons of 87-octane gasoline.

Tim Vail, president and CEO of SES, said the company already operates a coal-to-liquids plant in China and that the West Virginia plant "is not a science experiment."

Synthetic Energy says its process gasifies coal "without many of the harmful emissions normally associated with coal combustion plants," and can use many varieties of coal feedstock, including so-called "low ranking" coals that are cheaper than high-grade varieties.

The West Virginia plant also plans underground sequestration of carbon dioxide produced in the coal-to-syngas conversion.

West Virginia already has permitted a coal-to-liquids plant in another part of the state, but progress has been slow because of bureaucratic and environmental entanglements.

Governor Joe Manchin said the state will endeavor to see the proposed Northern Appalachia plant obtains whatever permits are required, but it will remain to be seen whether the proposed plant raises environmental concerns, as the coal industry and environmental interests frequently clash.

Bill Visnic, senior editor, Edmunds Auto Observer

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.