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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gasification Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (554)	9/29/2006 8:56:08 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

Utility may turn to coal gasification Inside Alaska business Published: September 29, 2006 Last Modified: September 29, 2006 at 02:00 AM siliconinvestor.com Homer Electric Association said it will take a lead role in developing a power plant connected to the coal gasification project for Agrium Inc.'s fertilizer plant in Nikiski. Agrium is studying a technology that would convert Cook Inlet coal into a gas that could be used in making its fertilizer, replacing Cook Inlet natural gas, whose price has been rising. The project, if it happens, would involve building a 200-megawatt power plant, with Agrium using 120 to 130 megawatts. The rest would be available for the power grid in Southcentral and Interior Alaska. Homer Electric buys most of its electricity from Anchorage-based Chugach Electric Association under a contract that expires at the end of 2013. Homer Electric has been exploring alternative sources of power, including the possible restart of the dormant Healy clean-coal plant, possible windmills on Anchorage's Fire Island and now the Agrium project. The Agrium gasification project recently began a new phase of study expected to last about 18 months, Homer Electric said. If pursued, the project could be running in 2011.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (554)	8/30/2007 12:20:42 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

Alaska bonds to give coal-gasification plant backing Washington (Platts)--29Aug2007 platts.com Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has approved legislation that allows the Alaska Railroad to issue $2.9 billion in tax-exempt bonds for the construction of a proposed coal-gasification facility on the Kenai Peninsula. Palin signed H.B. 229, sponsored by state Representative Mike Chenault, authorizing the railroad to issue bonds to help finance some portion of the project, to be built by Agrium, a Canadian producer of agricultural fertilizers. In 2005, the company announced that it would conduct a feasibility study on the potential use of coal gasification as a feedstock for its Kenai Nitrogen facility. "If the project goes through ... it's still under consideration by Agrium ... we will issue the tax-exempt bonds to help finance the project," Tim Thompson, manager of external affairs at Alaska Railroad, told Platts Tuesday. "Not all of the $2.9 billion will go to the facility; the rest would be used for facilities and equipment for the transportation of coal from Healy to the plant and a possible rail link from Willow to Port MacKenzie." Specifically, the legislation stipulates that the plant would be built on land adjacent to its existing urea and ammonia plants and authorizes a new rail link. Feedstock for the plant would come from the Usibelli Coal Mines in Healy. Equity partners sought Agrium is nearing the end of a front-end engineering and design study on the proposal, company spokeswoman Lisa Parker told Platts. The company hired the environmental firm ENSR to help with the FEED study and to complete a "coal diligence" review to see if the Healy area can provide the coal needed for the project. Though she wouldn't elaborate, Parker said the company is in talks with equity partners about the facility. A report and cost estimate on the project should be ready after Labor Day and the FEED study in early October, she said. While the company is still analyzing the proposal and hasn't made a final decision to build, Palin's signing the bill was a boost, according to Richard Downey, director of investor relations at Agrium. --Regina Johnson, regina_johnson@platts.com

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (554)	3/14/2008 8:50:54 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

Agrium won't move forward with coal gasification project (Published March 13, 2008) fortmilltimes.com SOLDOTNA, Alaska — Agrium has announced it will not be moving forward with coal gasification for its Nikiski plant on the Kenai Peninsula. Agrium's Lisa Parker said that escalating equipment and construction costs, the downturn in the economy and increased interest rates made the project more difficult. A decision on the plant's future will be announced later. She said Agrium will not be taking the plant down at this time, but decommissioning of it continue. The remaining employees at the plant will have jobs until June. After that, Parker said there would probably be only four or five employees finishing Agrium's environmental work at the facility. Last fall, Agrium announced that it was no longer going to be producing urea and ammonia at the Nikiski facility. At that time, the staff was reduced to only those working on the potential for coal gasification. Parker did say that half of the workers who were laid off last fall at Agrium have found other employment. Information from: Joe Nicks/KSRM-AM, radiokenai.com --- Agrium shelves gasification unit From Herald News Services Published: Friday, March 14, 2008 canada.com Processing - Agrium Inc. said current economic conditions aren't sufficient to proceed with a gasification facility to supply coal-based syngas to its Kenai, Alaska, nitrogen facility. The facility will be mothballed. Agrium, North America's largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer, said it continues to advance other gasification opportunities, however, and has a nitrogen take-off agreement with Faustina Hydrogen Products LLC in Louisiana. Anticipated startup is 2011. In Alberta, Agrium is reviewing gasification opportunities of syngas derived from byproducts of bitumen upgrading. ---- Agrium mothballs Alaska nitrogen plant Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:55pm EDT reuters.com (Adds remarks from Senator Murkowski) WINNIPEG, Manitoba, March 13 (Reuters) - Agrium Inc. (AGU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it would soon mothball its Kenai nitrogen plant in Alaska after determining that coal gasification was too expensive to supply the facility. The Calgary, Alberta-based fertilizer company said in September it would shut down the plant because of a shortage of natural gas, but had said it would study whether it could use coal gasification to eventually reopen it. Agrium said it continues to work on gasification opportunities at other locations in Louisiana and Alberta. "It is severely disappointing that after all the years spent trying to facilitate the Agrium Blue Skies project, it will not go through," U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said in a statement. "It is disheartening to not only the more than 200 former workers of the plant, or to the citizens of the Kenai area, but also to the entire state, that an opportunity to develop 21st century technology that would have converted the state's abundant coal resources into value-added products has slipped away," the statement added. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Winnipeg and Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; Editing by Christian Wiessner) --- Agrium to mothball Nikiski plant by Jason Moore Thursday, March 13, 2008 ktuu.com ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Agrium announced Thursday that it will not move forward with coal gasification for its Nikiski fertilizer plant. The announcement could prove to be the final blow to the Kenai Peninsula fertilizer plant, which halted production late last year. The fertilizer complex will be mothballed. At one time Agrium employed 300 people on the Kenai Peninsula. That number is now down to 50 and soon will drop to just five people. Lisa Parker with Agrium said the coal technology was proven to work but is simply too expensive at this time. "Difficulties come with the slowdown of the economy," Parker said. "The increased costs that we saw for equipment and construction were unfortunately escalating, the cost of the project and investment dollars up." Parker says half of the workers who were laid off last fall have found other work. A decision on the plant's future will be announced later. Contact Jason Moore at jmoore@ktuu.com