The U.S. Department of Energy has authorized the Encoal coal gasification project to proceed with full scale operation.
The project is sponsored by Shell Mining Co. at Triton Coal Co.'s Buckskin mine near Gillette, Wyo.
DOE's action signals that the project has met its preoperation goals and is ready for a planned 2 year test run. It's part of DOE's clean coal technology program.
Total cost of the Encoal project is $72.6 million, with DOE providing 50%. Authorization means that DOE will provide as much as $10.6 million during Encoal's operations phase.
Shell recently disclosed plans to sell its mining operations to Zeigler Coal Holding Co. While details of the agreement have yet to be determined, Zeigler has told DOE it supports the clean coal program.
ENCOAL PROJECT
Transition to the operational phase for Encoal follows design and construction programs completed 3 months ahead of schedule.
The project employs a process called LFC, or liquids from coal. The technology was developed by SGI International, La Jolla, Calif., a member in the Encoal project. Shell Mining enhanced the technology, now owned by TEK-KOL Partnership.
The LFC process treats low rank coal-low sulfur coal with a high moisture content that lowers its heating value-to make two products. One product is a solid, the other a liquid. The solid product is a high BTU, low moisture, low sulfur coal that can be burned in plants and meet the strictest emission standards. The liquid product is similar in quality to a low sulfur No. 6 fuel oil that can be used directly as a boiler fuel or as a refinery feedstock to produce specialty fuels.
The Encoal plant completed a 36 hr test run in June in which it operated at about 70% of capacity. Solid and liquid fuels produced during the test met or exceeded specifications.
When fully operational, the plant will be able to produce 180,000 tons/year of solid coal-like fuel and 150,000 bbl/year of liquids. A commercial scale plant would be about 10 times the size of the Encoal demonstration unit.
Two companies have agreed to buy fuels produced at the Encoal plant. Wisconsin Power & Light will buy about 30,000 tons of solid fuel for use at its coal fired power plants. Texpar Energy Inc. will buy as much as 135,000 bbl/year of liquid fuel for sale to industries.
Encoal is pursuing other markets for the solid product.
WIDESPREAD USE
James G. Randolph, assistant DOE secretary for fossil energy, said the technology being demonstrated at the Encoal plant has the potential for widespread commercial use in the U.S. and abroad.
Randolph said, "The process used at the Encoal plant is ideally suited for vast supplies of high moisture, low heating value coals in the Powder River basin, the Dakotas, Gulf Coast, and Alaska, It would also be expected to perform equally well with similarly constituted coal in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim, and eastern Europe."
Encoal is one of 42 projects active in DOE's clean coal technology program that provides government cofunding for as much as 50% of demonstration costs. Seventeen are in operation, and three have completed their test runs.
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