BioTfueL is a new joint project launched by five French partners and Uhde. BioTfueL integrates the various technology stages of the so-called biomass to liquid chain (BTL chain = biomass to fuel) with the aim of developing and integrating all the stages of the BTL process chain and bringing them to market.This involves the drying and crushing of the biomass, torrefaction, gasification, purification of the synthesis gas and its ultimate conversion to second generation biofuels using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.The overall budget for the BioTfueL project is 112.7 million euro. The project includes the construction and operation of two pilot plants in France to produce biodiesel and biokerosene based on biomass gasification using Uhde’s PRENFLO-PDQ process.The plants are scheduled to go into operation in 2012.

Linc Energy announced Mar. 2 that it has executed an agreement with GeoPetro Alaska LLC to acquire onshore oil and gas leases in the resource abundant Alaskan Cook Inlet Basin. The Cook Inlet Basin is abundant in coal resources and home to numerous oil and gas pipelines feeding the State’s energy needs. Gas pipelines from the basin run to Kenai, where gas is primarily used to fuel a liquefied natural gas plant, and to Anchorage where it is consumed for domestic use. Anchorage gas pricing is currently approximately US$7.00 per mcf, due to long term gas shortages in the region. There is an estimated 18 billion tons of coal deposits within the area covered by the acquired oil & gas leases, with a large percentage of this coal believed to be suitable for Underground Coal Gasification (UCG), the company said.

ClearFuels Technology Inc. (ClearFuels) and Hughes Hardwood International, Inc. (Hughes Hardwood) have executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding the development of a commercial scale biorefinery facility for the production of renewable jet or diesel fuel. The renewable energy facility will be co-located with Hughes Hardwood’s wood component products manufacturing facility in Collinwood, Tennessee. Under the MOU, Hughes Hardwood will supply 1,000 t/d of wood product for conversion into approximately 16 million gallons of synthetic jet or diesel fuel and 4 million gallons of naphtha per year, as well as approximately 8 MW of excess renewable power. The project is currently expected to be operational by early 2014.

The final design basis for the Collinwood commercial facility and other commercial projects will come from the joint demonstration of ClearFuels’ biomass gasifier integrated with Rentech’s synthetic fuels technology at a project at Rentech’s Energy Technology Center in Commerce City, Colorado. This joint demonstration is expected to be completed in late 2011. This demonstration project is supported by a US$22.6 million conditional grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. ClearFuels expects to begin receiving funds from this grant by the end of March. 

The commercial facility is targeted to break ground in late 2011 following completion of its joint demonstration project with Rentech of the companies’ integrated technologies for the production of renewable fuels. Synthetic diesel fuel produced from the Rentech Process meets ASTM D-975 specifications. Synthetic jet fuel produced using the company’s technology is certified by the U.S. Air Force and for commercial aviation use. Rentech has a 25% strategic ownership interest in ClearFuels.

Peabody Energy (Peabody) and GreatPoint Energy announced Feb. 19 that they have signed an agreement to pursue development of coal-to-gas (CTG) and coal-to-hydrogen (CTH) projects in the United States and around the world with carbon capture and storage (CCS) that would achieve near-zero carbon emissions while liberating vast quantities of stranded oil.

            The projects would be developed using GreatPoint's proprietary Bluegas(TM) technology, which utilizes catalytic hydromethanation to create pure hydrogen and substitute natural gas (SNG). This process is more efficient and cost effective than conventional gasification. The hydrogen will be used for industrial applications or combusted to generate near-zero carbon electricity. The SNG can be transported in the existing pipeline infrastructure and used as fuel in home heating, power plants or industrial processes.

            Catalytic hydromethanation, when combined with advanced power generation, could eliminate more than 90 percent of carbon emissions and nearly double the efficiency of conventional coal combustion or Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plants, according to a recently published study by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory.

            The technology captures the carbon dioxide (CO2), which can be used for domestic oil production through enhanced oil recovery. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that there are more than 60 billion barrels of stranded U.S. oil, and the International Energy Agency estimates there are more than 200 billion barrels of stranded oil worldwide. These resources could be recovered with injection of captured CO2.

KBR announced Feb. 17 that it has been awarded a contract by Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (MFCL) to provide licensing and engineering services for its grassroots 2,200 t/d ammonia plant located in West Bengal, India. MFCL is setting up the largest ammonia/urea (1.3 million tons per annum) manufacturing facilities in the country, along with Captive Power Plant, utilities, infrastructure and railway siding in the complex. KBR will license its Purifier™ Ammonia technology for the Matix plant, which will be based on coal bed methane. The use of coal bed methane as feedstock in the ammonia synthesis process is a relatively new application that provides an alternative to the use of natural gas in areas where coal is abundant.

   According to KBR, the company's purifier ammonia technology provides a more robust processing route to high-purity synthesis gas in ammonia manufacturing plants. The proprietary, front-end process cryogenic purification technology simultaneously removes impurities (i.e., methane, argon) from synthesis gas by washing it with excess nitrogen while adjusting the hydrogen to nitrogen (H2/N2) ratio to 3:1.

Plans by UK-based firms to build a waste-to-energy (WTE) gasification facility in Boston, UK have received the unanimous backing of Boston Borough Council, This Is Lincolnshire reported Feb. 15. The facility planned by Alternative Use Group Plc and Alchemy Farm would be located at a five-acre site at Riverside Industrial Estate. Provided the firms also receive the go-ahead from Lincolnshire County Council, the facility will turn waste wood and sewage sludge from Boston Waste Water Treatment Works into electricity. The facility's power output would provide electricity for 10,500 homes.  According to the developers, this would be the first of its kind in the UK.

Corval Group and Ryan Companies announced Feb. 8 a new joint venture focused on engineering, project management, construction, fabrication and providing solutions for industrial gasification projects throughout North America.  "We are excited about the joint venture with Ryan Companies," stated Michael Ahern, president of Construction for Corval Group. "Corval Ryan's combined 150 years of construction experience coupled with our specific expertise in Power, Petrochemical, Alternative Energy and General Construction offers our clients the experience necessary to build viable gasification projects." Corval Ryan is focused on chemical waste, municipal solid waste, industrial waste and other gasification projects and is currently working on gasification projects across the country.

Caterpillar Inc. announced Feb. 8  its intent to join the FutureGen Alliance, a public-private partnership established to build a first-of-its-kind coal-fired, near-zero emissions power plant in Mattoon, Illinois.  The FutureGen facility is designed to be the cleanest coal burning plant in the world and will integrate advanced technologies for coal gasification, electricity production, emissions control, carbon dioxide capture and permanent storage and hydrogen production on a commercial scale.   

    "Clean-coal plays a critical role in our energy supply, energy security and environmental protection," said Caterpillar Vice Chairman, Doug Oberhelman. "The FutureGen project will demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration technologies that are absolutely essential for the world to realize reductions in GHG emissions. This alliance recognizes the global nature of climate and energy challenges and will provide domestic and international communities the ground breaking technologies to assist in the shared goal of reducing GHG emissions."  

   The FutureGen plant is a 275-megawatt integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plant. It will be capable of powering about 150,000 homes.  The United States Department of Energy will provide more than US$1 billion in funding to the project.  

Siemens Energy won an 18-month, $300,000 R&D program by the Illinois Clean Coal Institute to study the effects of coal and coal-derived syngas combustion on the behavior of material and coating degradation in utility boiler and gas turbine environments.

Focus areas of the research program will explore materials degradation modes in integrated gasification combined cycle systems and utility boilers. The program will evaluate super alloy and alternative coatings, including nanotechnology materials suitable for use in flue gas streams from the combustion of coal, syngas, high hydrogen fuels and from future oxy-fuel fired systems. The focus of the work is to address the key customer question: "For a given fuel specification and material system, what is the predicted life time under high temperature corrosive and erosive operating conditions?"

The 18-month research project, which started on January 1, 2010, will be performed by boiler and turbine engineers and advanced materials development engineers in Orlando, Florida, with support from research scientists at Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich, Germany. The program goal is to design stable, durable advanced material systems for use in the aggressive environments associated with coal-fired boilers and gas turbines that operate on syngas or high hydrogen fuels.

“The program results will help lead to technical solutions for a gas turbine burning syngas to perform similarly to gas turbines fueled by natural gas in terms of efficiency, NOX emissions and reliability,” said Frank Bevc, Director, Technology Policy and Research Programs at Siemens Energy, Inc. “The project contributes to minimizing the technical and commercial risks of converting the next generation of IGCC plants, including carbon capture systems, to make them greenhouse gas "capture-ready,” added Bevc.