Coal to fuel

State's billion-ton waste product taking on new life as source for diesel that can be part of energy future.

As another war looms with oil as part of the sub-plot, an important step has been made to draw upon Pennsylvania's enormous reserves of coal to produce clean-burning liquid fuel.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $100 million grant to a Schuylkill County firm, Waste Management, PPY, LLC (WMPI), to build a plant to convert anthracite waste into a zero-sulfur diesel fuel.

With $47 million in already approved tax credits from the state, the company expects the rest of the $612 million cost of the coal liquefaction / gasification facility to be built in Gilberton to come from private investors.

Ground breaking is tentatively set for early 2004, with 1,000 construction workers involved in the two-year project. The plant will employ 150 permanent workers.

The 5,000 barrels of fuel to be produced by the plant daily, using a technology developed by the Germans during World War II, can be immediately blended with traditional diesel fuel to create a mixture with lower pollution emissions, that does not require engine modifications.

In addition to helping to improve air quality, the facility will be fed by coal waste, billions of tons of which litter the "Anthracite Country" landscape.