GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) – A company working on a process intended to produce cleaner-burning coal plans to begin operating its new test plant in northeast Wyoming by next summer.
Robin Eves, CEO of Clean Coal Technologies, said the company’s test facility should arrive from Tulsa, Oklahoma, around the end of January.
“The plant has been upgraded to operate at a much higher level than before,” Eves said, adding that the byproducts of refining coal “have huge value, and our technology has the capability of acting as a coal refinery, which has significant value around the world.”
He added that a commercial facility capable of processing 30 tons of coal an hour also will be located at the same site of the test plant southeast of Wright in Campbell County, the Gillette News Record reported Thursday.
Clean Coal says its process reduces the moisture in coal in a way that leaves the mineral stable and safe to handle. Along with producing more energy than untreated coal, the refined product also produces fewer harmful emissions when burned, including carbon dioxide, according to the company.
While the test plant is being moved and set up in Wyoming, the company will work to get necessary permits from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
The goal is to have the test plant up and running by the end of the first quarter 2018, Eves said.
The timeline for the commercial plant calls for the company to have its permitting done in six months and the plant built and operational by the end of 2019, Eves said.
With the global market for coal still strong, Eves said, Clean Coal’s technology is needed.
“It’s critical to sustain and develop coal reserves around the world,” he said.
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