Researchers at the University of Texas have announced they can convert coal to crude for under $30 with no emissions from the lowest grades of coal. The technology is described as using “micro-fluidic reactors” that convert coal to synthetic crude at a fraction of the cost incurred with traditional conversion methods.
Mr. Rick Billo, University of Texas’ dean of engineering is quoted:
“We’re improving the cost every day. We started off some time ago at an uneconomical $17,000 a barrel. Today, we’re at a cost of $28.84 a barrel.”
Like other oil alternatives technologies and sources, research attracts investment capital when oil prices are high or in scarce supplies and scientists have been converting one fossil fuel to another for many years. Most notably, during WWII, Nazis Germany converted coal to crude as oil supplies were being squeezed by advancing Allied forces. China built the world’s largest coal to crude conversion plant in 2008 to take advantage of coal reserves and meet growing energy demands. Most methods of converting coal to crude have always come at a high cost and have released Co2 into the atmosphere that are even higher then oil liquefaction processes. In order to avoid these carbon emissions, C02 capture and sequestration could be employed but that further adds to the cost.
Canada there are an estimated 10 billion tonnes of proven and recoverable coal which represents more energy then oil, oil sands, and natural gas combined. Coal is abundant worldwide with an estimated 1 trillion tonnes which is the equivalent of 4 trillion barrels of oil. The largest amount of proved and recoverable coal is in the U.S.
If the University of Texas has created the technology they claim, the implications would be massive. There is enough coal in the world to power the global economy for centuries. However, the crude produced from the process is still a fossil fuel with C02 emissions when burned.
We are already seeing growing natural gas reserves in North America start to change the way this abundant resource can be better utilized in order to reduce carbon emissions and reduce U.S. dependence on oil from “unfriendly” regimes and the geopolitical changes that shale gas may bring about. If the U.S. could become completely oil independent with clean coal to crude conversion, the world will be a vastly different one then we live in today.
Globe & Mail: Texas university has eureka moment for coal-to-gas
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