Carbon Fuels awarded $2M DOE grant to develop clean coal products

Tuesday March 19, 2019 0 comments Tags: Centennial, Carbon Fuels, DOE, clean coal, Lee G. Meyer

CENTENNIAL -- Carbon Fuels, LLC, developer of the CharFuel Coal Refining Process, was awarded $2 million by the Department of Energy to operate its existing 18 TPD pilot plant located at Hazen Research, Inc. in Golden to obtain engineering and product data essential for the design of commercial plants.

The grant is awarded to companies whose technology and process show promise for using coal cleanly and sustainably. The CharFuel Coal Refining Process produces high value liquid and solid products, while mitigating the environmental impact of using coal, the company said.

The program will be carried out using two ranks of coal, Wyoming subbituminous coal (PRB) and Illinois (#6) bituminous coal.

“We are honored to receive this award,” said Lee G. Meyer, Carbon Fuels CEO.

“Carbon Fuels’ CharFuel Coal Refining Process is an innovative technology that offers environmentally responsible growth opportunities for use of coal in both energy and non-energy markets.

“This process provides an avenue for efficiently and economically using coal, our most abundant high-energy-density (HED) fuel, while mitigating its environmental impact.”

Joining Carbon Fuels in this endeavor as sub-awardees are the School of Energy Resources (SER) at the University of Wyoming, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at the University of Illinois, and Hazen Research, Inc. in Golden.

“Carbon Fuels is extremely fortunate to have the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources and University of Illinois Sustainable Technology Center as participants in this project,” said Meyer.

“Their knowhow and expertise in the energy field will assure the success of this project.”

The CharFuel Coal Refining Process refines domestically abundant, run of mine coal (in the same manner as crude oil is refined) to produce high-value co-products, ranging from transportation fuels, petrochemical feedstocks and intermediates, ammonia fertilizers, as well as clean solid char.

The CharFuel Coal Refining Process produces little CO2 -- which is captured -- removes pollutants such as sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury from the coal and requires no process water.