January 13th, 2003
New Technology to Develop Coal-to-Diesel Clean Burning Fuel
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and Rick Santorum, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Republican Conference, announced today that the Department of Energy (DOE) has approved a $100 million grant to Waste Management and Processors, Inc. (WMPI), located in Schuylkill County, to develop a new coal-to-liquid transportation fuel production technology that has yet to be employed in the United States. The grant was provided through the DOE Clean Coal Power Initiative grant program.
"Senator Santorum and I are very pleased to report that we have been informed by the Secretary of Energy that a $100 million grant has been awarded to a company near Pottsville to develop a unique program to turn coal sludge to diesel fuel," stated Senator Specter in announcing the grant. "The $100 million award will be sufficient leverage to move the $612 million project forward to completion."
"The $100 million grant, announced today, by the DOE is a win for energy independence, a win for the environment and most importantly, a win for Pennsylvania, by helping to fuel the Schuylkill County economy," said Senator Santorum. "Senator Specter and I worked diligently in making this project a reality and we are confident that this will strengthen the local economy while contributing to our overall national security. The partnership established with WMPI will create a cleaner environment by converting coal waste into zero-sulphur liquid transportation fuels, which will reduce air pollution."
The technology that would be implemented, known as Fischer-Tropsch, provides cleaner-burning sulfur-free transportation fuels, such as jet and diesel fuel. Environmental benefits of using this technology are significant, including reclamation of land now covered by existing coal waste and lower-emission products.
The technology has tremendous potential both as a means of promoting domestic security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and as a means of environmental cleanup for coal waste lands and Clean Air Act compliance purposes. WMPI, through the use of coal waste, will eliminate millions of tons of coal mine refuse which is a major source of water contamination. In addition, the technology produces a zero-sulphur, high-cetane fuel which when used would decrease air pollution.
"This could be the opening for the US becoming independent of OPEC oil," Senator Specter stated in addressing the issue of our dependence on foreign oil. "Pennsylvania has a tremendous amount of coal sludge and a tremendous amount of coal."
WMPI's plant would be the first to commercialize this coal-to-liquid fuel technology, and will produce approximately 60 million gallons per year of domestic transportation fuel.
TEXT OF SECRETARY OF DOE ANNOUNCEMENT:
"I am please to announce that, under the Department's recent Clean Coal solicitation, we have competitively selected a demonstration project with WMPI, LLC, located in Gilberton, Pennsylvania.
This public-private partnership will demonstrate the ability to take waste coals from GOB (i.e. waste coal) piles and convert them to hydrogen, transportation fuels and other products. The environmentally clean conversion will be accomplished using a Shell gasifier to co-produce electricity and liquid fuels, leaving a CO stream suitable for sequestration. (However, this project scope does not include sequestration.)
The key benefit of the replication of this technology would be the eventual elimination of environmentally harmful coal GOB piles.
The total project cost is $612M; the DOE cost share will provide $100M to this project.
The next step in the process will be the formal negotiation of the Cooperative
Agreement between DOE and WMPI, LLC, which will be initiated shortly."