Who Are The Coal-To-Liquids Players?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 05.15.07
When we wrote about "coal to liquids" technology in preceeding years it all seemed so hypothetical. Now that the US Defense Department has shown an interest, serious planning and financing could be on the way. Reflecting this turn of events, we recently saw an advert for a coming conference In New York City, USA called the "Coal-To-Liquids Finance & Development Summit." Featured speakers listed in the promo are William C. “Bill” Anderson, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics, and Montana's Governor, Brian Schweitzer. "The Summit will bring together leading project developers, coal companies, investors, lenders, technology and equipment suppliers, construction contractors and other key industry players to share their perspectives on what it will take to successfully develop and finance a new fleet of CTL projects." For a list of the other "players" shown on the promo, look below the fold. For a technical and political background, see also these previous TreeHugger posts: Coal-To-Liquid Diesel Fuel: A Bipartisan Issue That Unites ...; and Methanol - The Official Chinese Liquid Transportation Fuel Of The ..., and Montana Governor Promotes Coal to Gasoline Conversion
American Metals & Coal International, Inc
Banc of America Securities
Black & Veatch
Calyon Americas
Credit Suisse
Consol Energy Inc.
DKRW Advanced Fuels
DZ Bank AG
EERC
Fluor Corporation
Headwaters Energy Services
Kiewit Energy Company
Peabody Energy
Prudential Equity Group, LLC.
Rentech, Inc.
SNC-Lavalin Capital
The Washington Group
WestLB AG
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I think you've missed out on another big player in the industry: American petrochemicals firm Dow.
Yesterday they announced that they are building a big CTL plant in China with Shenhua, to be operational by 2010. The press release is on their website.
Also, you should have a look at DME (dimethyl ether), a methanol-derived fuel from a similar process as CTL, which has got some interesting applications. Again, the Chinese are leading the way in that field.
I work for one of the above companies, and we're looking for a good biomass gasifier supplier, able to process large quantities of biomass and don't use air as the gasification medium. Anybody know of one or two?
I see you have Banc of America Securities listed as a coal-to-liquids player. Where do they fit in, how are they involved?