Published: August 14, 2007 02:31 pm         

Powered by liquid coal: CTL takes spotlight

BLUEFIELD — Key players with the potential for shaping the nation’s energy future will converge on southern West Virginia today for the nation’s first-ever Coal-To-Liquids Coalition conference.

“We’re holding this conference in West Virginia so that the people in West Virginia can hear from the experts on what coal-to-liquids means to your state — what it means to the future of West Virginia,” Coal-To-Liquids Coalition Spokesman Corey Henry said Monday. “We’re talking about the potential of tens of thousands of new jobs,” as well as the role the Mountain State could play in America’s future energy independence.

The conference will be held at Glade Springs Resort in Daniels today and Wednesday.

Scheduled speakers and panelists during the conference include key coal and CTL industry executives, Air Force representatives, United Mine Workers officials and influential lawmakers, including Congressman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

“The idea is to bring together the people who are going to make this happen, and the people who will benefit from this enterprise,” Henry said. “And we want to do that in a place where coal-to-liquid will be a reality like West Virginia.”

The Mountain State “has the coal, the history, the knowledge and the skilled work force for everything the CTL industry needs,” Henry said.

The process of turning coal into fuel was developed by German scientists Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in 1925, and was used extensively by that country to fuel tanks and airplanes during World War II. Beginning in the 1950s, South Africa — oil-strained due to Apartheid-related embargoes — began utilizing the technology. Led by the Sasol company, the country has produced more than 700 million barrels of synthetic fuels from coal since the 1980s.

Michael Hayes, of Sasol North America, will be one of the participants in a panel discussion at the coal-to-liquids conference on Wednesday.

During a telephone interview Monday, Congressman Rahall, a vocal advocate of CTL technology, extolled the potential benefits of this industry to America, which he says is addicted to oil.

“It (CTL technology) has enormous implications for our national security,” Rahall said. “It would enable our military, for example, to avoid buying oil from unstable regimes that are known to be sponsors of terrorism.”

In addition, he said the technology would also mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities through event such as Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The technology is also important for the military, as “CTL can meet the clean-air requirements in European countries where we have many air bases,” Rahall said.

“We know that the Air Force is really gung-ho on CTL,” he said. “They’ve already been testing it in their planes at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Their research labs there have been test flying it, and this is a high-performance fuel.”

But while coal-to-liquids technology has drawn bipartisan support in Congress and from government, union and coal industry leaders, many environmental groups are opposed to the potential energy source.

Members of the Coal River Mountain Watch, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Mountain Justice Summer and Sierra Club will be protesting at the conference.

According to information provided by protest organizers, a demonstration will be held outside the Glade Spring Resort entrance from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday. And today, the protesters plan to fly aerial banners over the resort reading, “Liquid coal fuels destruction!” and “Solid or liquid coal is filthy!”

In a news release announcing the protest, the protesters cite several reasons for opposing the technology, including, “ ... The existing CTL plants in South Africa pollute nearby communities. With the energy needed to convert the coal, CTL effectively produces twice the global warming gases as petroleum-based fuels. Coal production would have to increase greatly, increasing destructive, dangerous mining methods such as mountaintop removal, and drastically shortening the 100 years supply of available coal the National Academy of Sciences says the U.S. has. The process would also greatly increase demand for water, a life-giving resource that is being depleted ...”

However, Rahall contends CTL technology “can be done in a cleaner fashion” than conventional fuels.

“There are studies that show CTL, when used in combination with 30-percent bio-mass (plant material), and when you also capture the CO2 and sequester it, then you can have a final product that is cleaner than the conventional fuels we use,” he said. “And what most people don’t realize is impurities, such as sulfur and mercury, can be stripped out instead of being emitted into the air.”

Although the Air Force is taking a lead role in coal-to-liquid testing, Rahall would eventually like to see CTL as the fuel of choice used by commercial airlines, trains and in other transportation in America.

“I have a dream one day every NASCAR race will be fueled by CTL,” Rahall said, “and Jeff Gordon can have emblazoned across the hood of his souped-up Chevy, ‘Powered by liquid coal.’ ’’

— Contact Samantha Perry at sperry@bdtonline.com

     

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