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DOE prioritizes using technology to add value to US coal resources

U.S. Department of Energy officials' attempts to prop up coal-fired power plants has yet to materialize in any policy form, but the agency continues to push for innovations in technology that could support building a new coal-fired power plant in the U.S.

The Trump administration rolled out a proposal to cover costs for "fuel-secure" power plants in 2017, but that pro-coal, pro-nuclear effort has yet to manifest in any sort of actual policy. Meanwhile, despite the administration's rollback of regulations impacting coal plants, utilities have continued to announce the shutdown of coal facilities due to competition from natural gas and renewable energy resources. The DOE since rolled out numerous requests to fund innovation and research that would lead either to new uses of coal or allow coal plants to operate more nimbly with lower emissions.

"The first reaction is to get rid of the fuel source," Dan Brouillette, Deputy Secretary of the DOE, said at a recent gathering of state lawmakers known as the Southern States Energy Board. "Let's apply science to the emissions that are related to fuels like coal and natural gas, rather than getting rid of the fuel itself. That's the approach that we're going to take in the Trump administration."

Coal plants are closing a rapid rate, noted Brouillette, who is reportedly likely to replace DOE Secretary Rick Perry should he leave his position.

"They're closing prematurely, and we have to stop that," Brouillette said.

Last month, the DOE rolled out $56.5 million in funding to support research into new methods to use coal. Officials from the agency regularly show up at coal industry events touting their support of new technologies that would offer new applications for coal rather than its conventional uses as a power plant fuel or steelmaking feedstock.

So far, the agency has tapped into several potential ideas, from extracting valuable rare earth materials increasingly in demand by the technology sector to the conversion of coal into carbon fiber materials. The DOE is also funding research into engineering coal-fired power plants that would have operating characteristics more like some of the smaller, nimbler natural gas power plants that pushed much of the older coal generation off the grid.

General Electric Co.'s GE Research and GE Steam Power were awarded over $7.6 million for three projects aimed at driving higher power plant efficiencies and increasing operational flexibility. According to a June 26 news release, two of the projects involve an artificial intelligence learning system and other digital solutions that GE engineers believe will lead to improving coal plant reliability and enabling plants to adjust their load and balance intermittent renewable energy resources.

"We will be employing AI, advanced controls and other digital capabilities to enable coal plants to more quickly change its load profile to balance fluctuations with intermittent renewable energy generation," Mustafa Dokucu, a senior scientist with GE, said in the news release. "By transforming coal into a more flexible power source, it will help firm up grids with a more renewable intensive energy mix."

Several universities and other companies, including Siemens AG's Siemens Corp., were also awarded funds to work on new technology aimed at creating more advanced power plants.

At the same time, the DOE is working to support those who want to turn coal into more valuable products rather than burn them for fuel. Ramaco Carbon, a company affiliated with metallurgical coal producer Ramaco Resources Inc., for example, is exploring the use of coal as a precursor to carbon fiber for uses such as automobile parts.

Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, is working to mature a process for turning coal into a solid polyurethane foam product used for insulation or other purposes.

"I see a lot of innovation, a lot of new ideas [in technology to use coal in new ways] … but generally, you know, high-value carbon products are where everybody is going," said Satya Chauhan, the project manager at Battelle working on the research. "What I like about this [polyurethane foam process] is that it sequesters carbon in there."

Another area the DOE is supporting could solve a different environmental issue created by the coal industry, by pulling valuable materials out of acid mine drainage to incentivize cleanup of a pollution problem plaguing mining communities.

Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University, is working on a project that would collect rare earth minerals from acid mine drainage. The project is expected to help address one of the top sources of mining pollution in the region while collecting a commercially attractive stream of rare earth and critical minerals.

Through a grant the DOE awarded to the West Virginia University Research Corp., Ziemkiewicz is working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to create an acid mine drainage plant to collect and process rare earth minerals as it cleans the water. Ziemkiewicz has already spent decades working on preventing or treating damage caused by acid mine drainage.

"Mainly what I've been working on is trying to make acid mine drainage go away," Ziemkiewicz said. "We've been pretty successful in repairing some things that are now fisheries that were completely dead 30 years ago."

However, plenty of mines continue to generate acid mine drainage in places like West Virginia and it can be costly to clean up.

"The nice thing about the rare earths, from a production point of view, is that it just keeps on giving," Ziemkiewicz said. "It just keeps going after the mine's closed down."