Apparently DOE Actually Backed An Energy Winner -- With Coal

Remember the "list of 38"? That is the growing list of solar companies funded by DOE that have all gone bankrupt or have had significant financial problems.

It turns out that DOE actually backed a winner -- a coal technology company. I cannot make this stuff up.

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Great River Energy, operator of the Coal Creek and Stanton station power plants, will transfer its unique coal-drying technology to Tangshan Shenzhou Manufacturing Co. in China.

The agreement allows the company to sell Great River's DryFining technology in power plants in China for 10 years, using Great River for design and integration services.

The technology was invented by Great River in a Clean Coal Power Initiative with the federal Department of Energy and is one of a limited few DOE projects that is now commercialized.

I believe a company in Australia, or the government of Australia, was also interested in this process; if my memory is correct (and it probably isn't) I blogged about it several years ago, somewhat amazed that Australia was shipping their coal to North Dakota to see if their coal would yield to the process. If that is accurate, I do not know how the test turned out.

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There are a number of coal technology processes and a number of coal companies in North Dakota. I can never keep them straight: the companies nor the processes.

That's why I posted several stand-alone posts a long time ago to help me keep all of this straight:

• coal beneficiation: a huge success story 
• coal projects in North Dakota

Read those links first. Again, they were written a long, long time ago when I was still trying to figure things out. There are probably errors, but I will gladly correct them if alerted.

[I believe the correct spelling is "beneficiation," though it is spelled "benefication" on occasion according to wiki.]

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A story published by The Bismarck Tribune on September 6, 2009, also had to do with drying coal, but was being done by GTL Energy, not Great River.

A million pounds of New Zealand lignite is en route to a southwestern North Dakota plant designed to remove water from the low-quality but abundant coal.

Once processed at the unique, new drying plant near South Heart, the fuel will be shipped back to the Southwest Pacific nation in chunks the size of barbecue briquettes, weighing at least one-third less, burning cleaner and producing more energy, said Robert French, the chief executive officer of GTL Energy USA Ltd.

Plentiful in North Dakota and other parts of the world, lignite can be used to fuel electric power plants. But it usually has a moisture content of 30 percent to 60 percent, meaning it is heavier and more costly to transport than other forms of coal.

"Lignite in its natural state can be one-third water," said Steve Van Dyke, a spokesman for Bismarck-based Lignite Energy Council. "For every three coal cars, the third one would be nothing but water."

But as noted above, I do not know if this test took place, or the results.

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A reader provided the following after the original post:

The little physics/chemistry experiment on the prairie is GTL Energy.  Their process is in competition with the process you mention at Great River.

The GTLE site is just outside of South Heart, which is ten miles west of Dickinson.  For the last several years they have been processing quantities of coal from around the world to prove their process.

From a website:

GTL Energy Ltd (GTL Energy) was formed in Adelaide, South Australia, in 2000 initially to investigate coal-to-gas and gas-to-liquids technology for a specific project in Australia using low rank coal. This led GTL Energy to research and develop process technologies to convert low grade coal into higher rank fuel for cleaner, more efficient power generation, gasification and liquefaction. 

Low rank coal comprises sub-bituminous coal, lignite and brown coal, all of which contain substantial amounts of water (20% to 70% Total Moisture (“TM%”) by weight). Due to its high moisture content, low rank coal diminishes power plant efficiency and produces more emissions per unit of energy produced. 

GTL Energy’s primary objective is to upgrade low rank coal by removing a significant amount of water, thereby raising the thermal value, reducing emissions, improving the transportation and handling characteristics and increasing the market value of the fuel. Upgrading coal from low rank to high rank may result in access to stranded resources and a reduction in emissions.

In tests to date, the GTLE Process has reduced the moisture content of coals from around the world, thereby increasing the energy value and the dollar value of low rank coals.

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Disclaimer:  I'm rushed right now, and might have to clean this post up. But as noted above, the various coal technologies and the various companies confuse me. I don't purposely mislead anyone. Regardless, it looks like the reader clarified this for me. Hopefully it's closer to being more correct than my original post.

More later, if necessary.

Wow, I learn a lot from this blog. Thank you to all the readers for keeping me honest.