The U.S. Department of Energy has launched several research efforts to "leapfrog" existing technology to produce liquid fuels from coal.
DOE asked three industry teams to join a research effort to apply recent technological advances to cut the cost of coal liquids to $30/bbl.
The teams will be led by Amoco Oil Co., Naperville, Ill., Hydrocarbon Research Inc., Princeton N.J., and Canadian Energy Development Inc. with the Alberta Research Council.
The three research groups will join SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., and the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, both chosen earlier this year, in sharing about $5 million in federal research funds during the next 2 years.
ENGINEERING UNIT, COSTS
DOE also chose M.W. Kellogg, Houston, to build a generic, small scale, coal to liquids engineering unit at the government's Pittsburgh, Pa., Energy Technology Center.
DOE said industry could use the benchscale unit to test and improve emerging coal liquids processes. The 200 lb/day unit will be adaptable to a wide range of process designs.
Scheduled for completion in 1993, it serve as an intermediate test unit to determine whether new concepts developed in the laboratory warrant demonstration on a larger scale.
The National Academy of Sciences identified $30/bbl as a reasonable cost goal, at least at the laboratory stage, for the next 5-10 years.
DOE said research during the past 10 years has improved coal liquefaction processes, breaking the old single stage approach into multiple stages, each tailored to produce best results.
The older processes yielded 3 bbl/ton of coal, while the newer ones yield more than 5 bbl.
"As a result," DOE said, "projected costs have dropped to about $38/bbl. Also, the quality of the synthetic oil has been enhanced, meaning less refining is necessary.
"Several independent studies in 1989-90 indicated the high grade of liquids made from coal today would compete with oil at about $33/bbl,"
WHO WILL DO WHAT
The University of Kentucky will study integration of several coal pretreatment and reaction processing schemes. SRI will develop catalysts for coal conversion.
Amoco will seek ways to cut costs in the existing two stage liquefaction process. Hydrocarbon Research will compare liquid yields from various coals in two and three stage liquefaction systems.
The Canadian team will try to integrate three processing stages into a single process for high ash, low rank coals.
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