Wyoming Clean Coal Task Force awards $8.8M to 9 projects for 2011, including coal-to-liquids
06 July 2011
In its latest round of funding, reviewed last month by the state’s Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee, the Wyoming Clean Coal Task Force (CCTF) endorsed nine projects covering research in the fields of carbon capture and sequestration, gasification technology, post-combustion methods, gas clean-up and coal-to-liquids conversion.
The Clean Coal Task Force (CCTF) was created in 2007 by the Wyoming State Legislature to help secure Wyoming’s financial future by preserving the value of coal, an important export from the state.
The newly approved projects will receive $8,769,713, the largest single annual funding in the history of the fund.
The largest allocation, $2,513,237, was awarded to Sustainable Energy Solutions to test a skid-scale Cryogenic Carbon Capture unit with several fuel types and under various operating conditions. The state funding was matched by Sustainable Energy Solutions, Jiaotong University in China and the Laramie-based Western Research Institute (WRI) for a project total of $5,026,474.
The University of Wyoming (UW) received the second largest award, $1,407,900, to use advanced high-resolution imaging at various scales to model the interactions and fate of carbon dioxide (CO’) in naturally fractured saline aquifers. Mohammad Piri, an assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, will lead the project. The Brazilian National Laboratory for Scientific Computing provided matching funds for a total of $2,815,834.
The other CCTF-endorsed projects for 2011:
A $1,205,596 award to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, matched by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for a total of $2,411,192, to address gasification gas clean-up, carbon capture and coal-to-natural gas technologies.
A $744,780 award to the University of Kentucky, with a $745,000 match from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Kentucky for a total of $1,489,780, to study novel carbon capture technology for power generation using Wyoming coal.
A $731,984 award to Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., matched by the company for a total of $1,463,368, to focus on assessing the feasibility of sour pressure swing adsorption in a gasification process using Powder River Basin coal.
A $720,000 award to AmbreEnergy and the WRI, with a $740,000 match from both companies for a total of $1,460,000, to investigate the use of helical channel reactor technology to improve the conversion efficiency of syngas to liquid fuels and chemicals.
A $500,000 award to Thermosolv, LLC, and the WRI, matched by the WRI and AmbreEnergy for a total of $1 million, to develop and test a commercially viable approach to converting solid carbonaceous feedstock into high-value liquid fuel.
A $499,924 award to ARCHTECH, with a $500,000 match from the company for a total of $999,924, to address pilot-scale in situ coal biogasification with above-ground processing to produce methane.
A $446,292 award to the University of Utah, matched the DOE and the university for a total of $892,584, to advance commercial development of chemical looping with oxygen coupling with solid fuel to produce a pure CO’ stream.
In its first five years, the CCTF has assisted in distributing $31.2 million in appropriated funds while leveraging matching funds of $35.1 million and is supporting 42 projects through the Clean Coal Technology Fund, which serves to stimulate research to enhance and improve clean coal technologies, with an emphasis on the use of sub-bituminous coal at high elevations.
WAY too little WAY too late. Wyoming can look forward to a future where they no longer have to dig up the earth to find sources of energy. It is a beautiful State and its future lies not in mining coal or fancy ways to pretend coal is a modern fuel. It is not.
Energy is ubiquitous throughout the universe. We have the knowledge needed to utilize some of it. Coal, and other fossil fuels are a closing chapter in human history.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 06 July 2011 at 06:20 AM
We will see CTL, GTL and BTL as a bridge to lower oil imports. Saying the the universe is full of energy is not filling gasoline tanks on more than 200 million cars for the next 10 years. EVs will not even be 1% by that time.
Posted by: SJC | 06 July 2011 at 07:40 AM
Of course you're right SJC. But it is helpful for the energy industries to get a look at what lies in store for them. And it is a fact that forces physicists to pull their heads out of the sand and grasp the notion they know little about how the universe - and consequently their own planet - actually operates.
The tiny fiefdoms of knowledge that once built walls of obfuscation around their repositories of wisdom, are being forced to accept the growth of human spirit.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 06 July 2011 at 09:35 AM
Being a resident of Wyoming who is not employed by either gas, coal or oil, I can say this: Wyoming does more than California does in terms of finding and supplying energy. Most of our energy experts (we're 34% of the nation's clean coal, btw) go to California so you idiots can feel smug about being "clean." ALL of our 1.3GW of annual wind turbine production (and climbing fast) also gets sent to CA.
So from a resident of Wyoming to all residents of California: thanks for being stupid and passing all of those regulations and laws making it impossible for you to produce your own energy! We profit greatly from your idiocy. What's your sales tax now? 12%? State income tax? State deficit? HAHAHAHAHAHA
Posted by: Aaron Turpen | 06 July 2011 at 02:48 PM
California produces 40% of the oil it uses, second only to Texas and Alaska. So your statements are not quite valid.
Posted by: SJC | 06 July 2011 at 06:07 PM
Aaron... why would your energy "experts" go to California if life is so cushy in Wyoming? Better pay?
But you are correct to laugh at how Cali shoots itself in the head regularly. Most industry of any substance has long abandoned Cali and their over-zealous regulations.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 06 July 2011 at 10:45 PM
SJC: Yes, they produce 37% of the oil they use. That's just crude, though. I'm talking about electricity production. So my statements are perfectly valid.
Reel$$: ya I typo'd there, but you got the drift. Cali is our nation's armpit and why anyone would live there baffles me.
Posted by: Aaron Turpen | 07 July 2011 at 01:53 AM
Weather's usually great and the landscape lovely outside the cities. As for doing business... apparently Delhi is more accommodating. Then again, Tesla is building there and they still have shipping, entertainment and some aerospace. Everything else has moved out.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 07 July 2011 at 12:31 PM
You two make statements as if just saying it makes it so.
Posted by: SJC | 08 July 2011 at 04:24 AM