coal

GreatPoint Energy has completed a $1.25 billion deal to build the first large-scale plant for converting coal to natural gas in China, a sign of how U.S. energy technologies are often being commercialized overseas.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that China Wanxiang Holdings will invest $420 million in Cambridge, Mass.-based GreatPoint Energy, the largest equity investment by a Chinese company in a venture-backed U.S. company. Wanxiang will finance construction of the plant, with the first phase to be completed by 2015, according to the Journal.

The project in China, which the company has been … Read more

Coal is a mainstay in the global energy system, but some types of coal are less desirable than others.

Startup CoalTek today said it has landed its first large contract in China to upgrade low-rank coal with its system of microwave generators.

The company's technology, originally developed by an astrophysicist and geologist, zaps conveyor belts of low-grade coal with a series of microwaves to remove moisture from it.

Drying out the coal before burning it to produce electricity can increase the energy value by 50 percent and have the coal burn cleaner, CoalTek said. By passing it through its … Read more

FARMINGTON, N.M.--Viewing the San Juan basin by air is one of the most dramatic ways to see where your energy comes from.

I got a chance to tour a portion of the basin on a small plane run by EcoFlight two weeks ago as part of a fellowship organized by the Institutes of Journalism & Natural Resources (IJNR). While most people have a vague idea of how energy is produced, the quick trip brought to life the footprint of large-scale energy production.

The Four Corners area in northern New Mexico is one of the country's most productive … Read more

An Australian coal-driven power station plans to install solar reflectors on its property to augment its electricity generation process.

CS Energy plans to install 44-megawatts worth of solar on about 30 hectares of its Kogan Creek Power Station property in Queensland within the first half of 2011, and have it complete by 2013, the company announced Wednesday.

The $104.7 million project has secured the backing of the Australian government, with $34 million coming from the government's Renewable Energy Demonstration Program. CS Energy is spending $70 million. The remaining funds will be drawn from a $35.4 million Queensland … Read more

Ciris Energy today said it raised a series B round to build its first commercial plant for converting underground coal to natural gas.

Khosla Ventures led the funding, which also brought in existing investors Braemer Ventures, Rho Ventures, and GE Energy Financial Services. An SEC document from last week showed that Ciris raised $23.9 million, out of a planned $63.9 million.

Ciris has developed a process to biologically convert underground coal into methane, the main ingredient of natural gas. The company has said that its technology is less expensive than conventional natural gas production and other gasification processes. … Read more

Rather than drill more holes to get natural gas, Luca Technologies wants "grow" more gas in existing wells.

The Golden, Colo.-based company has developed a process to generate and then extract more natural gas from depleted coalbed methane wells by injecting water, microbes, and nutrients into the coal seams.

The company is now pursuing permitting in Wyoming's Powder River Basin to expand pilot testing of its technology, said CEO Robert Pfeiffer. He anticipates that Luca will get permits for larger-scale pilot projects of "restoring" existing wells in the next four to six months, he … Read more

The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday awarded $1 billion for the FutureGen clean-coal power program and carbon dioxide storage network in Illinois, aiming to cut emissions of greenhouse gases from coal-fired electric generating plants.

"This investment in the world's first, commercial-scale, oxy-combustion power plant will help to open up the over $300 billion market for coal unit repowering and position the country as a leader in an important part of the global clean energy economy," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Oxy-combustion burns coal with a mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of … Read more

Canada will phase out older coal-fired power plants to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Wednesday, as it moves to make natural-gas-fired plants the new clean-power standard.

The new standards, expected to be firmed up by early 2011, will force electricity producers to phase out older, high-emitting coal-fired plants and require newer facilities to match the lower greenhouse-gas emissions of more efficient natural-gas fired plants.

Canada has 51 coal-fired units producing 19 percent of the country's electricity and 13 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. However, 33 of those plants will reach … Read more

Rather than pump smokestack gases underground to keep them out of the air, Skyonic wants to turn them into something else and sell them.

The Austin, Texas-based company this week started a pilot project of converting flue gases from a cement factory into industrial chemicals, including baking soda. This SkyMine project, located at in San Antonio, Texas, will test the company's "carbon mineralization" process, with the goal of starting construction of a commercial-scale facility by the third quarter of this year, according to Skyonic founder and CEO Joe Jones.

Carbon capture and storage often refers to separating … Read more