Recent article on coal-to-liquids
sundaygazettemail.com
Excerpts:
Fischer-Tropsch fuels would be a bargain next to oil even if the cost of crude were to plunge roughly 45 percent, to about $35 a barrel, but that is considered the cost-cutoff point. No one is predicting anything like such a decline, yet coal-liquefaction plants take years to build, and oil prices have proven highly volatile.
“Cost is a key consideration,” Bajura said. “The fear is that the price of oil could drop below the Fischer-Tropsch fuels.”
[ snip ]
DKRW Energy LLC of Houston intends to start building a coal-to-liquids plant in Wyoming next year, with operations scheduled to get underway between 2008 and 2010. Rentech Inc. in Denver and Clear Energy Inc. in Calgary, Alberta, have similar hopes.
Yet it is WMPI, of Gilberton, Pa., that appears to be the furthest along. It expects to start construction in April on a $112 million Fischer-Tropsch plant near Gilberton that would transform 1.4 million tons of waste coal a year into 60 million gallons of liquid fuel. It has agreements with Shell and Sasol for technical help and, more importantly, it secured federal loan guarantees in the energy bill just passed by Congress that should put it over the top on financing, said John Rich, WMPI’s president. Eventually, Rich said, he sees the plant building out its capacity, requiring a $4.2 billion investment. |
