The ENCOAL Mild Coal Gasification Project, A DOE Assessment

This report is a post-project assessment of the ENCOAL{reg_sign} Mild Coal Gasification Project, which was selected under Round III of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Coal Technology (CCT) Demonstration Program. The CCT Demonstration Program is a government and industry cofunded technology development effort to demonstrate a new generation of innovative coal utilization processes in a series of commercial-scale facilities. The ENCOAL{reg_sign} Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bluegrass Coal Development Company (formerly SMC Mining Company), which is a subsidiary of Ziegler Coal Holding Company, submitted an application to the DOE in August 1989, soliciting joint funding of the project in the third round of the CCT Program. The project was selected by DOE in December 1989, and the Cooperative Agreement (CA) was approved in September 1990. Construction, commissioning, and start-up of the ENCOAL{reg_sign} mild coal gasification facility was completed in June 1992. In October 1994, ENCOAL{reg_sign} was granted a two-year extension of the CA with the DOE, that carried through to September 17, 1996. ENCOAL{reg_sign} was then granted a six-month, no-cost extension through March 17, 1997. Overall, DOE provided 50 percent of the total project cost of $90,664,000. ENCOAL{reg_sign} operated the 1,000-ton-per-day mild gasification demonstration plant at Triton Coal Company's Buckskin Mine near Gillette, Wyoming, for over four years. The process, using Liquids From Coal (LFC{trademark}) technology originally developed by SMC Mining Company and SGI International, utilizes low-sulfur Powder River Basin (PRB) coal to produce two new fuels, Process-Derived Fuel (PDF{trademark}) and Coal-Derived Liquids (CDL{trademark}). The products, as alternative fuel sources, are capable of significantly lowering current sulfur emissions at industrial and utility boiler sites throughout the nation thus reducing pollutants causing acid rain. In support of this overall objective, the following goals were established for the ENCOAL{reg_sign} Project: Provide sufficient quantity of products for full-scale test burns; Develop data for the design of future commercial plants; Demonstrate plant and process performance; Provide capital and O&M cost data; and Support future LFC{trademark} technology licensing efforts. Each of these goals has been met and exceeded. The plant has been in operation for nearly 5 years, during which the LFC{trademark} process has been demonstrated and refined. Fuels were made, successfully burned, and a commercial-scale plant is now under contract for design and construction