Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993 TAG: 9311130163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL LENGTH: Medium
The contract is for CTC to expand its $2.5 million mild gasification pilot plant and add a continuous briquetting and coking system. It will be the basis for scaling up the CTC char-liquids-coke process to a full-size commercial plant in the Southwest Virginia coalfields.
CTC President Richard A. Wolfe said the conversion invention is a breakthrough in converting Virginia and West Virginia coal into high-quality coke in a continuous and environmentally clean process.
The pilot plant converts coal into a new char product within 20 minutes for use as a carbon source in the ferro-alloy and mini-mill scrap steel industry, and high-quality coke within 90 minutes for steel blast furnaces.
The current process of using a battery of coke ovens takes 18 to 22 hours. Because of emission problems, steel companies such as Bethlehem, Amoco and Inland Steel have shut down their coke ovens and started importing coke from Japan and Australia.
Nearly 2.2 million tons will be imported this year, Wolfe said, and this will increase unless a new coke-making technology free of environmental problems is created in this country.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reviewed the CTC process and classified it as a coal conversion rather than a battery process.
A Chinese delegation from Huaneng Coal Corp., one of that country's largest coal companies, arrived in Bristol on Thursday night and visited the CTC Research Facility Friday to observe the new process. It was the third visit by a Chinese company to discuss CTC's new coal technologies.
"They are keenly interested in seeing if they can utilize our technology in China," Wolfe said.
A consortium made up of CTC and several unidentified U.S. corporations will build the first commercial plant, Wolfe said.
In its first phase, it would use about 250,000 tons of coal per year and expand to process up to a million. Construction and start-up costs will be about $35 million.
The site has not been announced, pending final financial arrangements with the corporate investors. Once markets are established, Wolfe said, an additional $100 million will increase the plant to full capacity.
Once the process is demonstrated in a full-scale commercial plant, he said, "it is expected that this new generation of coke-making technology will spread rapidly throughout the U.S. and around the world with the construction of a number of large plants."
CTC also announced a new process invention to remove sulfur from coal using a high-speed high-gravity cyclone centrifuge.
Wolfe said it would remove up to 85 percent of the pyritic sulfur normally associated with coal, thereby reducing sulfur-dioxide emissions associated with coal combustion.
That program is part of a $5 million Energy Department contract made with CTC several years ago. CTC will build a $2.5 million four-story pilot plant to demonstrate the process on a 10-ton-per-day basis.
The $500,000 engineering design for the plant has just been completed by K.F. Kaiser Engineers of Pittsburgh. Construction bids will be sought in the next 30 days.
by CNB