Potential incentives package is credited!!!
Muhlenberg plants could create 400 jobs
9/27/2007
Potential incentives package is credited
By David Blackburn
Messenger-Inquirer
Muhlenberg County could get one, and possibly two, coal-to-diesel fuel plants that would each create at least 200 operating jobs with incentives approved in a state energy bill.
Louisville-based Kentucky Fuel Associates Inc. and Fuel Frontiers Inc. of Washington, D.C., initially plan to build a barge-loading plant on the Green River in northern Muhlenberg County.
"Their commitment to me is if things go right, they'll build two of them," state Rep. Brent Yonts said Wednesday in announcing the companies' plans.
The second one could be built near a railroad in the southern end of the county, said Garry Sparks, Kentucky Fuel president.
Though plans are not final, the company has letters of intent to build two $350 million, site-specific facilities in the county, Sparks said.
Long-term plans include building a total of five such plants in Kentucky within five years, Sparks said.
One might be in Yonts' district, which includes Christian and Hopkins counties -- the latter of which is the only other county with coal, Yonts said. Sparks wouldn't confirm a possible third site.
Neither Sparks nor Yonts were sure how many construction, mining, truck-driving and support jobs would be created.
The 1,500 or so tons of coal a day that would be used "is a whole bunch of truckloads," Yonts said.
Each plant would operate about 355 days a year to produce about 200 million gallons of ultra-clean diesel fuel annually, Sparks said. Coal could come from surface and underground mines, he said.
The plasma gasification technology to be used would produce no emissions, making the high-sulfur coal that is plentiful in the county desirable, Sparks said.
"We're taking the coal that nobody else wants," he said.
Being emissions-free would help bypass legal entanglements that have plagued Peabody Energy Corp.'s proposed coal-fired Thoroughbred power plant near Central City.
If obtaining permits, incentive funds and the designs go smoothly, construction could start next spring, Yonts said.
Engineering would take about four months, followed by 18 to 20 months for construction, Sparks said.
"It's all contingent on getting the initial money," Yonts said of venture funds in the bill he worked on and the General Assembly passed last month.
Kentucky Fuel is expected to apply for at least $2 million in the next few weeks and possibly another $2 million for the second plant, Yonts said.
It is likely to be approved because some of the bill's language is worded based on the company's needs, said Yonts, who has negotiated with the companies for several months.
"It's a matter of getting all the paperwork lined up, and I think it will happen," he said.
Plant would use all products
The bill requires carbon-capture-ready technology, Yonts said. That was included in anticipation of future federal standards to limit carbon dioxide emissions, he said.
The proposed process would use high temperatures starting at about 7,000 degrees to quickly break down coal, Sparks said.
A five- to six-pound block of coal will produce about one gallon of diesel fuel in 16 to 20 seconds, he said. The fuel would have less than 1 part of sulfur per million, he said.
"Everything that comes into the plant is used," Sparks said.
Sulfur and nitrogen are removed to make fertilizers, and 250 to 300 gallons of water per hour are consumed in the conversion process, he said.
The steam from the process would turn turbine generators, which produce electricity that the plant would use to operate, he said. The 16 to 20 kilowatt excess electricity would be sold, he said.
Instead of being emitted, the carbon dioxide is continuously cycled through the process until it is broken down into diesel fuel, Sparks said.
Carbon dioxide might be emitted during an emergency venting, but it would only be an amount equivalent to that produced by a five-pound block of coal, Sparks said.
Yonts credited John Hobgood, a retired Bremen businessman, in leading the plant's arrival in the county.
Hobgood said he learned about the process through a member of his church. He contacted Yonts, then talked to Charles Gilbert of Kentucky Fuel to learn about the process.
"It excited me because we have so much high-sulfur in Muhlenberg County, and we can't get rid of it," Hobgood said. "I'm just excited about getting 200 jobs here."
Muhlenberg County Judge-Executive Rick Newman, who talked to Yonts about the project for eight months, was excited about the announcement.
"Obviously, we're tickled to death," Newman said. "We're going to do anything we can to solidify them coming to Muhlenberg County."
But he was cautiously optimistic. Waiting nearly seven years for the Thoroughbred plant to materialize makes it tough to believe, "but this looks like the real deal," Newman said.
Shaw, Stone and Webster, an English engineering firm with American headquarters in Houston, is already under contract to build, design and operate the proposed plants, Sparks said.
A disclaimer in a press release by Nuclear Solutions Inc., Fuel Frontiers' parent company, noted it has never built or operated such a plant.
"There are inherent risks associated with the establishment of such new operations," the disclaimer said.
Yonts included the cautions in his press release.
Nothing is fully guaranteed, Yonts said, calling it "a big hope."
"But I think it's got some legs under it," he said.
AI
