New fuel may fire up economy.

• Author: Woodring, Jeannie
• Position: New coal upgrading technique

Can a new technology turn Alaska coal into a competitively-priced fuel? That's what a consortium of companies hopes to prove in an Anchorage-based demonstration project.

Dark and sooty, a single lump of Alaska's subbituminous coal looks mighty insignificant. But the humble mineral may some day bring Alaska rich rewards, if a new technology and a group of companies succeed in turning the coal into a new form of commercial fuel.

The technology is an advanced coal upgrading technique, which uses hot-water drying (HWD) to make low-rank coal-water fuel (LRCWF) from coal. It was developed at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), formerly a U.S. Department of Energy technology center and now a private research agency at the University of North Dakota.

The companies include 12 international firms and research institutions who've formed a coalition called The Alaska Low-Rank Coal-Water Fuel Consortium. The group wants to build a $25-million commercial demonstration project for the technology at the inactive Knik Arm Power Plant in Anchorage.

With coal from the Usibelli Coal Mine at Healy and the untapped, vast Beluga-Yentna coal fields in Cook Inlet, the project hopes to prove that LRCWF can work as a substitute for heavy fuel in oil-fired utility and industrial burners.

The project "is an exciting alternative," says John Sims, vice president of marketing for Usibelli Coal Mine Inc., a consortium member. "It addresses a very big international market."

All that lies in the way of the project: $25 million and capturing a market niche in the volatile world energy picture.

A Timely Technology

To understand how coal-water fuels (CWF) are produced with hot-water drying, imagine putting a slurry of pulverized coal into a pressure cooker (in this case, inside a tubular reactor). Treating the coal with high pressure and high temperatures pushes water out of the tiny coal particles. Tars and oils, however, remain behind to seal the coal, preventing moisture from reentering and keeping the coal highly combustible while preserving its energy value.

Centrifugal force then separates the water from the coal particles in a cyclone, leaving a fine-grained black sediment. Adding clean water to the particles creates the low-rank coal-water fuel, which has a consistency similar to heavy fuel oil.

"The coal-water fuel effort goes back 20 years," says John Sibert, executive director of the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF). "The Department of...