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Big Coal Tries to Go Greener - 3/12/08

Peabody, the world’s largest coal company, has become a part of an investigation into greenhouse gas-related financial risk. They have decided to make an investment in GreatPoint Energy. GreatPoint Energy has developed a technology to turn coal into cleaner natural gas.

GreatPoint will use this influx of cash to develop their technology on a commercial scale. The partnership between Peabody and GreatPoint will develop joint coal gasification projects using Peabody’s coal reserves and land. This is a win-win situation for both companies. GreatPoint instantly gets a big customer and Peabody is helped with their environmental issues.

A series of penalties have been issued to coal fired plants without carbon controls, recently causing coal companies to look for solutions that would reduce their risk for more penalties.

GreatPoint’s technology removes the sulfur, mercury and 60 percent of the carbon out of the coal when it is converted to natural gas, at a cost of $3.00 per million BTU. February’s natural gas futures traded at $8.00 per million BTU leaving room for profit.
The gasification of coal will lead to a cleaner environment and reduce the dependence on imported natural gas.

More information on coal-to-liquid:
Liquid Coal
Liquid Coal as Transportation Fuel
Can Liquid Coal from Alaska Help the U.S .
China Leads the Way Coal-to-Liquid Production

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