ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRISTOLI
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Someone peeking into the back shop at Coal Technology Corp. might assume the company is preparing for a big barbecue this summer.
Stacked against one wall Monday was a tall pile of what appeared to be oversize charcoal briquettes. But they were briquettes made from coke, a coal-based fuel that foundries and steel mills use to melt and refine their products.
Over the past 10 years, Coal Technology has developed and patented what it says is a better process for making coke, resulting in a product that is more uniform and of a higher quality. The process costs less and doesn't pollute the environment as traditional methods do, said Richard Wolfe, company president and CEO.
Longtime residents of the Virginia coalfields remember the 1950s and earlier when the night sky glowed orange-red from the fires of brick beehive-shaped coke ovens and the daytime sky was filled with their smoke. A more modern method recovers some of the byproducts of coke-making but still produces an irregular-shaped coke and burns off the flue gas produced in flares.
By contrast, the CTC process is self-contained. Pulverized coal is moved by twin screws into a reactor vessel where it is heated to 1,400 degrees in the absence of air. At that temperature, the coal becomes plastic like taffy and gives off fumes that are condensed into a liquid, which can be turned into motor fuels. Methane gas, which is also liberated, is used as fuel to heat the reactor vessel.
Coming out of the reactor at the end of the 20-minute process is a coal char - a very dry substance of 80 percent to 90 percent carbon - that can be used directly in the making of iron or steel or be used to make coke briquettes.
In the second manufacturing stage, the char is ground and mixed with binding agents and a small amount of coal. It is formed into 4-by-6-inch briquettes and heated to 2,200 degrees, which binds the materials into a dense, uniformly shaped product with a 92 percent carbon content. The advantage of the briquette shape, Wolfe said, is that it provides better airflow through a steel furnace and better heat distribution.
The process has been under development for 10 years. The company has built two pilot plants to test it - the latest producing 10 tons of coke per day. So far, $10 million has been invested in research, with 80 percent of that coming from the Department of Energy, Wolfe said.
This summer, the company plans to begin construction of a full-scale plant in Princeton, W.Va. That $12 million facility will be located in an unused repair shop Norfolk Southern Corp. will lease to the company for three years at $1 per year. American Electric Power Co. is a supporter of the venture, along with NS, Wolfe said.
Financing for the commercial venture is through a limited liability partnership.
Because the work has moved to a commercial stage, the Energy Department's role will be reduced to guaranteeing the performance of the company's coke reactor vessel, Wolfe said.
The first phase of the plant, which should be in production by next summer, will process 70,000 tons of coal a year; eventually, it will process 700,000 tons a year, Wolfe said. A second plant is planned somewhere in the Virginia coalfields, he said.
Because of the closing of antiquated, polluting domestic coke ovens, the United States has to import 4 millions tons of the 25 million tons of coke it uses annually. Those imports, Wolfe said, represent 7 million tons of U.S. coal that is not being mined to make domestic coke, as well as lost mining jobs.
Mike Karmis, director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech, said the center is preparing to study both the import and export markets for coke with an eye toward taking advantage of the technology Wolfe's company has developed.
Wolfe, the son of a West Virginia coal miner, represents his company's technology as "a new beginning" for the coal industry in Southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia, where the nation's best coke-making coals are mined. A ton of coal sells for $25 to $30, while a ton of coke goes for $150, he noted.
On Monday morning, the company held a brief ceremony as it prepared to ship 20 tons of the coke briquettes to a General Motors plant in Defiance, Ohio, for a further test of the product's commercial potential. Over a 10-hour period today, GM will use the coke to melt scrap steel for use in its cars and trucks.
Intermet Corp.'s Lynchburg Foundry operation in Radford, which makes cast-iron parts for the auto industry, used seven tons of CTC's coal for a test in February. "It ran very well for us," said Richard Martin, a technical manager at the foundry.
From a metallurgical standpoint, the CTC coke produced less sulfur and melted the iron more quickly than what the company has been using, Martin said.
The company's process can also be used as an environmentally clean way of treating old automobile tires or municipal garbage. Scott Weng, a representative of Pyrotech Corp., said his Taiwanese company is interested in using the process to recover methane and other chemicals from tires and curbside waste. Weng said the process is drawing international attention.
It has drawn the attention of U.S. foundries and steel makers as well, Wolfe said. Such companies include Intermet, Inland Steel and Weirton Steel, he said.
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. 1. Coal Technology Corp. ofby CNBBristol has developed a new, cleaner process for making coke from
coal. At left, the briquettes are transferred to a truck. 2. Below,
CTC President Richard Wolfe and Vice President Bob Wright stand on
the upper level of the plant. The compressor behind them is part of
the technology that helps take the byproducts from the coal. color.