Pennsylvania to Turn Waste Coal Into Diesel

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ennsylvania will build the nation's first commercial plant to convert waste coal into no-sulfur diesel fuel and home-heating oil, the Associated Press reported.

State officials said Waste Management and Processors Inc. in Gilberton, Pa., plans to begin the $612 million project next spring in Mahanoy Township, about 50 miles northeast of Harrisburg, AP said.

The state has agreed to buy 15 million gallons a year of diesel to fuel its vehicles and oil to heat its buildings during the next 10 years, AP said.

Using an updated version of technology first developed by German scientists in the 1920s, the plan will turn waste coal — also known as “culm” — that has piled up in Pennsylvania's coal regions into diesel and home-heating oil, AP reported.

The process involves mixing gasified waste coal with oxygen and water, then heating it to produce a synthetic gas. The gas undergoes another chemical reaction to become paraffin wax, which is refined into diesel, AP said.

Pennsylvania has an estimated 258 million tons of culm piled which produces environmental problems, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said.

anguage that effectively reserved the guarantees for the project was included in the federal energy bill that President Bush signed two months ago, and the assurance of in-state markets for nearly all of the fuel gives prospective investors an extra margin of comfort, said state Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty, AP reported.