November 24, 2009

Grant to help WVU-China add carbon sequestration to coal-to-liquids project

By Emily Corio
November 4, 2009 · West Virginia University is continuing its work with the Chinese government on a coal-to-liquids plant, thanks to $1.25 million from the federal 2010 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill.

WVU began working with China on the coal-to-liquids project in 2003. WVU offers oversight and advice while also learning from China's investment.

Dick Bajura is director of National Research Center for Coal and Energy at WVU.

"What we've learned is that one needs to design a system for its ultimate goal at the beginning," Bajura said.

Bajura says the plant, located in the Inner Mongolia region of China, annually produces three million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. The project is currently looking at how to capture and sequester the CO2, but Bajura says this would have been easier to do before the plant was built.

Bajura says the project with China is a cheaper way for the U.S. to learn how to produce commercial scale coal-to-liquids.

"By working cooperatively with China we will learn their experiences in constructing their plant, and that will help us in our country to deploy this technology here that will be at a fraction of the cost that it would be for us to construct our own plant and test it," Bajura said.

The $1.25 million grant will pay for WVU's expenses, including advising China on how to dispose of the CO2 and how to manage carbon dioxide emissions from a global perspective.

Also, as part of the 2010 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill signed by President Obama last week, the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown was allocated about $670 million, which is its annual budget.

NETL representatives say a lot of this money is also dedicated to carbon capture and storage research.

http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=11924