Fletcher starts move towards coal fuels

Press, 17 November 1980, Page 30

Fletcher starts move towards coal fuels

By

KEN COATES

in London

A first step in New Zealand’s drive to develop a liquid fuels industry from coal has been taken by Fletcher Holdings, Ltd. It is advertising for a general manager, a post “for a person who will select and lead a project team in coal developments within • New Zealand.”

The company also calls for “high-calibre staff” to support its leading part in the development .of liquid fuels and other .'industries. Fletcher says that undeveloped lignite reserves of 3000 million tonnes, recoverable by open-cast methods,

will be used for the devel-opment-of a liquid fuels industry; . The aim, it says, is to establish a 10-million-tonne-per-year liquefaction plant by the late 1980 s. “In today’s terms, this is expected to involve the expenditure of two billion dollars. “Reserves of bituminous and sub-bituminous coals hold exciting prospects for the establishment of other industries such as anode manufacture for the aluminium industry .silicon carbide, 'activated carbon, coke, and others.” The key person being sought by Fletcher’s could conceivably come from West

-Germany. Britain, or the United States. Many alternative technologies are being developed to turn coal into liquids or gases for use as fuels or chemical feedstocks. Fletcher’s calls for substantial experience in the coal processing industry ,in areas such as feasibility and management, and also says that previous participation in planning, building, startup and running of a big undertaking is important. This could prompt applicants, representing a wide range of experience, from Germany. Germany’s. national programme envisages con* version to oil or gas of 10 million to 15 million tonnes of German coal a year by the end of the century. Its Government also has its sights set on creating a big new West German engineer-

ing industry to export tech- , nology to nations with coal throughout the world. Some of . the ventures are j bringing up to date technologies pioneered in Ger- , many in the 1930 s and used . to help fuel its war machine. Ruhr Gas is commis- I sioning a towering pilot \ plant based on a gasifier ♦ developed by Lurgi, the c engineering subsidiary of Metallgesellshaft. ( Other processes aim to , produce a synthesis gas, suitable for a great diversity _ of uses.

Rheinische Braunkohlenwerke (Rheinbraun), the main company in Germany mining lignite, has a hightemperature test plant heat Cologne gasifying a ton of dry lignite an hour. The company is reported to be designing a demonstration plant consuming up to 75 tonnes an hour at very high temperatures. New Zealand’s Minister of Energy (Mr Birch) had . talks with Rheinbraun officials when he visited Germany two months ago. The company’s idea is to use the synthesis gas to make methanol, which is a potential feedstock, fuel additive, or fuel in its own right Deutsche Shell plans a further stage of the ShellKoppers process for making a chemical feedstock. Shell itself has committed itself to a process which aims at a rich gas generated at fairly high pressures, to feed its refineries when oil gets too expensive. After success with a pilot

• plant in Amsterdam, Shell built a plant at Harburg, • near Hamburg, designed to I cnnsume 150 tonnes of coal : a day. Oil-from-coai projects are expected to be selected for • Government support next : summer. i German industry is also I reported to be backing some > United States projects, noi tably with a stake in Gulf Oil’s process which aims at > converting two million tonnes of coal a year into oil. • Rhinbraun and Uhde have i joined Mobil Oil in a joint venture to develop a flui- i dised-bed version of Mobil’s j 1 catalytic coal-to-petrol pro- ' ' cess. The biggest of Germany’s 1 projects is a §250 million i plant at Bottrop, near Essen, ; mostly funded by the state j of North Rhine Westphalia. > It feeds on kohleol, mixture ■ of coaldust and oil. A j serious problem is getting rid of residues, and this plant, plans to gasify them. Noise is a big environ-, mental problem, and $3O million has already been spent on noise suppression and on a long conveyor to avoid the need for huge trucks to bring 200 tonnes of coal a day. The most ambitious coal conversion venture in Germany is one which aims to • couple hot helium gas off a ■ nuclear reactor directly to a

coal reactor, but this a longI term project. British Gas will spend ' about $750 million over the ir next two decades in develf oping a range of processes e capable of turning any nate ural hydro-carbon — gas n oils, crudes and coal — into 5 natural gas. Its most amII bitious project, called a “composite gasifier," inf tended to convert coal into s gas,, is being designed with s the assistance of Lurgi. f . The National Coal Board is predominantly interested 3 in two routes for converting j coal to liquid fuels. One is a i hydro-cracking technology ' d lYif °T?® d , , in Partnership I with British Petroleum. The other is a high-pressure soii vent extraction process of - its own invention. Both pro- : cesses are at the small pilot- 1 I plant stage. , The United States has set' i up a synthetic fuels corpor- , [ ation funded by the Federal ’ Government to manage a national programme of coal ; : conversion.