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

To: Natedog who wrote (1628)	5/23/2011 7:32:35 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 1740

TransGas Coal-to-Gasoline complex begins construction Monday, May 09, 2011 yourindustrynews.com By way of an internationally attended groundbreaking ceremony, TransGas Development Systems, LLC, has begun construction of America’s largest Coal-to-Gasoline complex, the Adams Fork Energy plant in Mingo County, West Virginia. The ceremony was conducted today on the project site at Wharncliffe, West Virginia, USA. The Adams Fork Energy plant will convert regional coal into 18,000 barrels per day of premium grade, ultra clean gasoline. The facility was permitted by the State of West Virginia, and is based on Uhde’s PRENFLO PDQ gasification technology provided by Uhde Corporation of America, which belongs to the ThyssenKrupp group. Uhde Corporation of America is business partner of Uhde. Uhde is among the world leaders in coal gasification and has 70 years of experience in coal gasification. Due to the current energy market situation, Uhde sees a significant increase in the demand for coal-based, alternative energy projects; the Adams Fork Energy plant is one that will create more independence from the oil sector and a new marketplace for coal-derived fuels. Gasification offers a number of upstream and downstream advantages in an environment of record oil and gas prices and dwindling energy reserves also worldwide. Coal gasification plants provide higher efficiency, and particularly lower emissions than conventional coal conversion plants, and allow the utilisation of low-grade feedstocks, such as coal, petcoke or biomass, for a variety of products. Uhde’s PRENFLO process is based on Uhde’s proprietary Koppers-Totzek coal gasification process which was developed 70 years ago, and has been proven for over a decade in the world’s largest single-train IGCC power plant in Puertollano, Spain. The Adams Fork Energy coal-to-gasoline plant will be the first licensed Uhde PRENFLO gasification application in the United States. TransGas and Uhde Corporation of America had signed the license agreement as early as in December 2008, followed by the minor source permitting effort that led to the Air Permit which was issued in February 2010. The plant complex will consist of coal preparation, coal gasification, gas cleaning, methanol synthesis and a methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) technology. This coal-to-gasoline complex in Mingo County is expected to be completed by 2015. Source: Thyssen Krupp

To: Natedog who wrote (1628)	5/23/2011 7:51:36 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1740

Mingo coal-to-gas plant breaks ground By Ken Ward Jr. The Charleston Gazette By Eric Eyre The Charleston Gazette May 9, 2011 wvgazette.com CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- TransGas Development Systems marked the start of its $4 billion coal-to-gasoline plant with a groundbreaking ceremony in Mingo County Monday, promising to create 300 jobs and help bring down the price of gas. The New York-based company said the plant will covert 7,500 tons of coal a day into 756,000 gallons of premium gasoline -- about a third of the amount of gas used in West Virginia each day. TransGas plans to start construction in July and complete the project within four years. "This type of commitment will not only move us toward energy independence, but will also create jobs, boost our economy and help address the rising price of gas that comes from our nation's costly dependence on foreign oil," said U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who spoke at the ceremony in Gilbert Monday. Supporters of the plant said the project would create a new market for coal-derived fuels. The plant would be the first of its kind in the nation. "This country has to get serious about making energy independence a priority, which is why we must develop a national energy policy that harnesses all of our vast domestic resources and push forward with new technology, just like coal to gasoline," Manchin said. The Mingo County project isn't without critics. West Virginia Sierra Club officials said the plant's developer, Adam Victor, has a poor track record with projects. Last year, one of Victor's companies, Project Orange, filed for bankruptcy after the firm's natural gas-to-steam electricity generating plant in Syracuse, N.Y., became mired in multiple lawsuits. That plant is scheduled to be demolished. TransGas plans to sell taxable bonds to fund the Mingo County project, and repay the bonds with revenue generated by the plant. Company officials have said that private investors will provide the bulk of the project's financing. Last month, the West Virginia Economic Development Authority passed a resolution expressing its willingness to authorize $3 billion in revenue bonds for the TransGas project. The state won't be financially liable to repay the bonds if the project doesn't pan out. TransGas first announced plans to build the coal-to-gas plant in 2008, saying the project would create 200 jobs. If it were built, the project would be eligible for at least $600 million in state tax breaks, according records obtained under the state's Freedom of Information Act. While serving as West Virginia's governor, Manchin made bringing coal-to-liquids plants to West Virginia the top priority of his state energy plan. Most scientists, energy experts and environmentalists say that without carbon-dioxide controls, coal-to-liquids plant will emit twice the greenhouse gas emissions of gasoline -- when the coal is turned to liquid and when the fuel is burned. In 2008, TransGas said the plant would be a "near-zero emissions facility" that would capture carbon dioxide. Later, Victor said the company would seek federal approval to send carbon dioxide through interstate pipelines to the Texas coast, where it could be pumped underground. Those plans, however, weren't part of the project's design that the state Department of Environmental Protection approved last year. DEP officials said state regulators couldn't mandate limits on the TransGas facility's emissions. Also, TransGas has yet to revise its air pollution permit in the wake of a Sierra Club appeal to the state Air Quality Board. The board ruled that DEP didn't have enough evidence to support its conclusion that the plant's pollution controls were sufficient enough to warrant its designation as a "minor source" of emissions. The permit was sent back to DEP's Office of Air Quality for revisions. Last fall, construction unions stopped questioning TransGas' project, after the company agreed to use local workers to build the plant. TransGas said the coal-to-gas plant will produce high-octane gasoline and create 3,000 construction jobs over several years. The company plans to buy coal from area mines. Reach Eric Eyre at erice...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-4869. Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.