Mar 22, 2006 - 02:06:48 CST
It sounds suspiciously like alchemy.The Fischer-Tropsch process, which has been around since the 1920s, does something more useful than turning a base metal into gold.
It can turn coal into another kind of fuel for which there is a high demand.
A similar process already happens right here in North Dakota, at the one-of-a-kind Great Plains synthetic fuels plant near Beulah, where lignite coal becomes synthetic natural gas and useful commercial byproducts.
Now the Department of Defense is showing a keen interest. Coal can be gasified, then liquified and become fuel for military jet planes. Or fuel for tanks. Or Humvees.
The Pentagon wants access to that kind of fuel - wanting to play a role in establishing a plant but depending on private industry to run it.
With some ingenious tweaking, it may be possible for every military vehicle that uses combustible fuel to run on the same product, one that starts out as coal.
There's a possibility that the product may be made in North Dakota.
Though there are some differences in the processes, people here who do gasification have mastered the concept of transforming coal. There is a base of expertise here.
And there's lignite coal here, a lot of it. Once again, there are skilled people here, in this case, at extracting coal.
If a plant to produce liquid fuel were to be located in North Dakota, transportation costs of the lignite and the finished product should not be a deal-breaker.
The Department of Defense is looking at Ohio also, but we can imagine that because of cost factor, land acquisition and labor among them, it might be more financially attractive to consider building a plant here in the northern Plains than in Ohio. Locations in other states also are in the running.
Cost is definitely a consideration. A plant such as the one envisioned may cost upwards of $5 billion. Investors would have to be convinced that the investment would be sound.
But with the military as a prospective prime customer and the likely size of the contracts to purchase the fuel, investors may figure that the market may be more sound in the long run than, for example, being in the politically and economically volatile petroleum business.
If President Bush is serious in his assessment that the U.S. is addicted to oil and sees the good of taking action to break that addiction, the military and its consumption of oil is something the president can influence. If a very clean-burning liquid fuel derived from North Dakota lignite can play even a single-digit percentage part in breaking our society's petroleum cravings, it strongly should be considered.
The trick would be to get a plant financed and built and into production of a fuel that is competitively priced - without needing to rely on a permanent federal subsidy.
Charles A. Francis wrote on Dec 30, 2006 9:43 PM:
gene hernandez wrote on Jul 17, 2006 6:49 PM:
marty grill wrote on Jun 21, 2006 2:05 PM:
Gary Armor wrote on Mar 22, 2006 10:48 AM:
Stan Stelter wrote on Mar 22, 2006 9:55 AM:
Jack Mclaughlin wrote on Mar 22, 2006 6:01 AM:
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