Buoyed by Bush, firm still pushes coal-to-fuel plant

John rich, Jr. holds up a sample of his hybrid diesel fuel made from the mining waste seen behind him.

Legislation pending in the U.S. Senate could give a $100 million boost to the construction of a coal-to-oil plant in northern Schuylkill County.

John W. Rich, Jr. is confident that when the Comprehensive Balanced Energy Policy Act of 2001 -- sponsored by U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) -- passes, he'll be awarded such funding.

Rich said he's hoping with America's ever-increasing desire to be less dependent on foreign fuel sources -- particularly in light of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath -- legislators will continue their support for finding new sources of fuel here at home.

"We want to send the message overseas that 'We don't need your oil,' " Rich said in updating his project this week.

Estimates are that the bill from Bingaman and Daschle would pump $460 million per year for the next four or five years into clean, domestic energy sources.

Rich is buoyed by the support of former Gov. Tom Ridge, who signed into law the legislation that made this type of project possible in Pennsylvania before becoming director of the Office of Homeland Security; and by a vote of confidence from President Bush, whom Rich met in May.

"He's been very supportive to say the least, with a plan to put $2 billion in clean-coal technology programs," Rich said about the president.

While the energy bill awaits Senate approval in a session delayed by anthrax threats on Capital Hill, Rich works in his Gilberton office, pushing ahead with detailed engineering plans on the $300 million-plus project.

"We've been doing a ton of technical work to define how the plan is going to actually be configured," Rich said.

Rich, president of Waste Management Processors, Inc., went public with his plans for a coal gasification/liquefaction plant in 1997.

He's partnered with Sasol Ltd., a South African oil giant, Bechtel Group, Inc., the international construction company, and Chevron/Texaco to bring America's first such plant to a 30-acre site near the Gilberton Power Co.'s John B. Rich Power Station along Morea Road.

In 1999, he won $7 million in cost-sharing funding from the federal Department of Energy and $47 million in tax incentives fromthe Pennsylvania Legislature, but Rich hasn't received the significant federal funding boost he needs to break ground on the plant.

Even with $100 million in energy funds, Rich estimates he'll need to borrow half of the money he needs.

Undeterred, his group continues to plan for the eventual construction of the plant, which would break coal down into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, then recombine them and convert them into clean liquid transportation fuel.

The process, developed by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in 1922, is nearly emissions-free, so it's safe for the environment. It also removes all sulfur from the coal, creating an emissions-friendly fuel.

"The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is mandating that, by 2004, sulfur content in diesel fuels goes from 350 parts per million to 30," Rich said. "We're at zero."

Fuel produced at the gasification plant wouldn't be pumped directly into car and truck engines. Instead, it would be mixed with existing diesel stocks at refineries to provide lower emissions fuel without having to adapt engines to a ccept it, he said.

The clean fuel is expected to sell for about $1.10 per gallon.

There's much work to be done before then, however.

Rich and his partners need $12 million for engineering "to get it ready to the point where we're ready to break ground." The detailed engineering study would take at least 10 months, followed by a two to three-year construction cycle that would put at least 1,000 local people to work under Rich's plan to use local labor.

"Maybe we'd be in start-up in three years," Rich said. "If we had the money now, we could expedite the detailed engineering step."

Confident and determined, Rich presses on getting quotes from vendors, crunching numbers and waiting for the energy bill's passage so he can make an application for funds.

"We're moving in the right direction," Rich said. "And, we're definitely not going backward."

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