Bright Future Ahead in Valley
By JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH
POSTED: August 2, 2008
theintelligencer.net
Article Photos
Photo by Scott McCloskey
John Baardson, president and chief executive officer of Baard Energy LLC, talks about the coal-to-liquids plant his company plans to build at Wellsville. With him are Steve Dopuch, vice president of Business Development for Baard, and David DiStefano of Locke Lord Strategies LP.
If John Baardson's predictions come true, the next generation of energy tycoons may be right here in the Upper Ohio Valley.
''I'd like to call the Ohio Valley the 'new Middle East,''' said Baardson, president and chief executive officer of Baard Energy LLC.
Baardson plans to construct a coal-to-liquids fuel plant along the Ohio River at Wellsville, where it will be near a reliable coal supply and situated so that carbon dioxide produced in the process of converting coal to liquid fuel can be sequestered underground. His comments came in the wake of an announcement this week that such a plant, known as Northern Appalachian Fuels, also will be built in Marshall County - thanks to a partnership between Consol Energy Inc. and Synthesis Energy Systems Inc.
''I knew the project was being looked at,'' Baardson said of the plant planned for Benwood. ''I think it's an excellent spot for that.''
But Baardson doesn't see the Marshall County project as a threat to his plans - he believes it will be a shot in the arm for the entire coal-to-liquids industry.
''It doesn't impact us directly like competition. Overall, the market is so huge we're really looking at being able to supply more fuel for competition with foreign oil,'' he said. ''The goal is to displace all oil coming in from 'hostile countries' like those in the Middle East.''
It was announced this week the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has issued a water quality certification for Baard's plant at 16 School Road south of Wellsville, which will be called Ohio River Clean Fuels. It is the first of three major state environmental permits needed for Baard Energy to proceed with the project and will allow ORCF to impact more than 8,000 feet of streams and 1.69 acres of wetlands to build the plant. To mitigate that impact, ORCF has agreed to rehabilitate and protect Rocky Run and a portion of its tributaries and to create 2.54 acres of wetlands, all on site.
Baardson expects the plant to be built between 2010 and 2014 and said it will produce 53,000 barrels of fuel daily from a combination of coal and biomass, such as wood chips. The components would be ground before going through a gasification process; sulfur, mercury and particulates would be removed; then the resulting gas would be exposed to a catalyst that converts it to synthetic jet fuel, diesel fuel and other chemicals. The fuels could then be used in their pure state or blended with other fuels and components.
The planned Benwood plant will use Houston-based Synthesis Energy System's proprietary technology to convert low-rank coal and coal wastes into higher-value energy products, such as transportation fuel and ammonia. The technology, known as U-Gas, gasifies coal without many of the harmful emissions normally associated with coal combustion plants. The primary advantages relative to other gasification technologies are greater fuel flexibility because it can use all ranks of coal, many coal waste products and biomass feed stocks.
While the technologies employed at each plant may share some similarities, the Ohio River Clean Fuels project and the Benwood project differ in scale.
The Benwood facility is expected to cost about $800 million to build, while Baardson has said an investment of $5.5 billion will be necessary to construct the Wellsville plant. The Marshall County plant is to be situated on a 23-acre plot along the Ohio River at the county's industrial park, but Baardson's project is expected to occupy 600 acres. And 300-500 people should be employed for construction of the Northern Appalachian Fuels plant, which is anticipated to have 60 full-time employees following its completion; Baardson said it will take about 4,000 people to build the Wellsville plant, which is expected to have 450 full-time employees after it begins operations.
Those planning the plant at Benwood predict it will produce 100 million gallons of 87-octane gasoline per year, along with 720,000 tons of methane annually. Baardson anticipates his operation will produce 53,000 barrels of jet fuel and diesel fuel daily.
Baard believes these differences will serve the two separate plants well.
''We will have a much larger facility than what they're planning ... ,'' Baardson said. ''Their strategy is to build smaller but build more of them. I think that's probably a very good strategy in the long term.''
In fact, SES already employs 196 workers worldwide and has an office in Shanghai, China, an operating coal-to-liquids plant in Hai Hua, China, and two other Chinese plants currently under development.
Regarding the SES partnership with Consol, Baardson said his company has a similar plan in place, though no details of that plan have been announced.
''It's helpful to have a coal source identified up front, but it's not necessary because of the abundance of coal in the area,'' he added.
Both Baardson and Tom Hoffman, vice president of external affairs for Consol, believe the federal government needs to provide incentives for developers to build and operate such plants. And Baardson believes such incentives may become more available as plants like the one planned for Benwood become reality.
''I think it's very positive that these types of things are being looked at in many locations,'' Baardson said. ''It will have a huge impact on our overall energy strategy, and I think we'll see more and more federal support.''
But Baardson noted that while many local lawmakers support plans to offer such incentives as guaranteed loans, many environmental groups do not want to see coal mined at all.
Because coal consists mainly of carbon, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that has been blamed for global warming is produced when coal is burned. But in the processes planned for both the Benwood and Wellsville plants, officials say the carbon dioxide produced can be sequestered, or captured, underground and held there for millennia.
Ultimately, Baardson said, the coal-to-liquids industry could change the local region, the nation and the world.
''The whole coal-to-biomass liquids industry will make huge difference and bring back some of the industrial jobs we've lost,'' he added. ''It's the re-industrialization of America.'' |
