Wyoming | EnergyNorthwest.com

Keeping Coal Relevant: University of Wyoming Leads the Way

May 6, 2022

To say the coal industry faces challenges is an understatement. Coal-fired power plants are being retired around the globe as efforts to decarbonize the world’s power supply have intensified due to climate change concerns. That’s a problem for people working in the coal industry, as well as for states and governments that rely on coal revenue to fuel their economies.

Wyoming is one of those states. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Wyoming produced more than 239 million tons of coal in 2021. That’s more than three times the amount produced in West Virginia, the second-largest coal producing state in the U.S.

“Wyoming is the energy state,” Scott Quillinan, senior director of research for the School of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “Our mission here at the School of Energy Resources is energy-driven economic development for the state of Wyoming. … We support the energy industry here through academic programs, research programs, and outreach and engagement.”…

Wyoming Coal Power Plant May Host Natrium Advanced Nuclear Demonstration

June 4, 2021

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The post Wyoming Coal Power Plant May Host Natrium Advanced Nuclear Demonstration appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Bill Gates’ nuclear innovation startup TerraPower and Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary PacifiCorp are looking to site a federally backed demonstration of their 345-MWe Natrium advanced nuclear reactor system at a retiring PacifiCorp coal power plant in Wyoming.

During a June 2 energy event in Cheyenne attended by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Bill Gates, and U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), the companies said they plan to announce a plant site for the demonstration by the end of this year. While the companies are now still conducting “joint due diligence to ensure this opportunity is cost-effective” for PacifiCorp’s customers, their next steps will include “further project evaluation, education and outreach, and state and federal regulatory approvals prior to acquisition of a Natrium facility,” they said.

An ARDP Boost

The announcement is nonetheless significant because it provides a state-backed vicinity for one of the two much-watched demonstration projects bolstered by $ 80 million each in initial federal funding under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).…

Facility to Make Coal Cleaner, More Efficient, Taking Shape in Wyoming

October 14, 2019

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The post Facility to Make Coal Cleaner, More Efficient, Taking Shape in Wyoming appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Clean Coal Technologies Inc. (CCTI) has begun reassembling a test facility designed to produce a cleaner-burning and more-efficient coal. The coal beneficiation and byproducts extraction plant, first built in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for an initial test of the technology, and then moved to Gillette, Wyoming, is expected to be completely rebuilt in the next few months, a company official told POWER on Oct. 9.

CCTI in 2017 touted its process, saying it had developed “the world’s first commercially viable and scalable coal dehydration technology” designed to upgrade the Btu content of lower-ranking coal “through the extraction of volatile material in liquid form,” ultimately producing a “cleaner burning, dry coal.” The process of improving coal quality is known as beneficiation, a technique in which the quality of raw coal is improved, either by reducing the extraneous matter that is extracted with mined coal, or reducing the associated ash, or both.…

Clean Coal Test Project Set for Wyoming

December 18, 2017

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A test plant that will be part of research into producing cleaner-burning coal for power plants is set to begin operation next year in Wyoming, with the company behind the project saying global demand for coal makes the project viable even as the U.S. reduces its reliance on coal for electricity production.

Clean Coal Technologies Inc. (CCTI) is building the test facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and plans to move it to northeast Wyoming near the end of January 2018. The New York-based company has been developing what it calls “the world’s first commercially viable and scalable coal dehydration technology,” designed to upgrade the Btu content of lower-ranking coal “through the extraction of volatile material in liquid form,” ultimately producing a “cleaner burning, dry coal.”

The facility would dry Powder River Basin (PRB) coal, making it burn hotter with lower emissions, and increasing its value on the global market, according to CCTI. The company did not immediately respond to requests from POWER for comment on the cost of building and transporting the plant, although the company in June 2017 said a group of investors was seeking $ 80 million to build a facility in the PRB.…