Coal, cost

The price differential at which coal becomes competitive with gas depends on plant size and the cost of capital, but based on estimates by the International Energy Agency (21) the required price ratio for gas to coal in North America falls into the range of 3.1 to 3.7 on an equivalent energy basis ( /MJ). Current prices give a gas/coal cost ratio nearer 1.5 to 2.0. As a result, all projected new methanol capacity is based on natural gas or heavy oil except for the proposed coal-based plant in China. 

For by-product coke ovens, it is general practice to blend two or more types of coals that have complimentary technical as well as economic characteristics. Because most by-product coke plants are located near the large industrial users of the coke and by-products, coals usually have to be transported from the coal mines to the coke plants. Thus coal blends are designed on integration of coke quaUty needs, by-product quaUty needs, coal costs, transportation costs, impacts of productivity, and impacts on the coke ovens themselves. The physical behavior of coal blends during coking can damage coke ovens. 

The advent of cheap oil in the 1950 s, coupled with escalating coal costs, finally diverted interest from the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis as a commercial proposition in western Europe and America. Until recently, the only noncommunist country which has actively pursued Fischer-Tropsch technology has been South Africa. 

Cost of GasificatUm-Tiased Power Systems Comparing power options is complicated by the many different parameters that must be considered in making a cost determination coal cost coal properties, inclnding sulfur and moisture contents ambient temperature degree of process integration gas turbine model and gas cleanup method. These, and many other factors, have a significant impact on cost. 

Having noted these technical matters, it should, however, also be observed that the operational flexibility of available processing equipment usually quite subordinates them to coal costs (which represent between 25 and kO per cent of the plant gate costs of the product). Most future conversion plants are therefore likely to use lignites and subbituminous coals which, in Canada as in many other countries, are abundantly available at low cost through surface-mining. 

Coal cost estimated at eight dollars per equivalent fuel oil barrel. (Net heating value of six million British thermal units.)... 

The tire profit equation can also be used to look at the economic feasibility of burning tdf from the point of view of a cement kiln operator. For the cement plant there is no incremental operating cost in labor for feeding the kiln with tdf instead of coal. There is no disposal cost since the steel wire in the tdf becomes iron oxide, which is incorporated into the cement product. If the tdf is trucked to his plant by the tdf processor, then four terms of the equation can be set equal to zero F =0, C = 0, T = 0, and D = 0. Thus, for the cement kiln operator, the profit per tire he receives equals the revenue, which in this case is a fuel cost savings. If coal costs 50 per ton and he can get the same Btu value with 20 per ton tdf, then his savings is 30 per ton for using tdf. With the rule of thumb of 100 tires to the ton, R = 0.30. 

At another cement manufacturer, Holnam/Ideal, TDF costs are 34 percent of their coal costs on a dollar per Btu basis. Fuel costs at Holnam/Ideal are approximately 19 percent of their production costs. Of this 19 percent, coal accounts for 50 percent of the cost coke, 35 percent and TDF, 15 percent.19... 

Basic investment and operating cost information were scaled down to 100 million SCF/day from a larger IGT design (2). The total capital cost, according to the guidelines set in Table 1, is 237 million. At the base coal cost of 17.7/ton ( 1.00/106 Btu), hydrogen price is 2.56/103 CF, or 7.84/106 Btu. 

The future attractiveness of the coal-based process will depend upon the availability of natural gas or oil at a reasonable cost. If the coal cost rises to 1.50/106 Btu from the 1.00 level, then the cost of natural gas must rise to 3.10/106 Btu for hydrogen by the Steam-Iron Process to compete with reforming if by-product power sells at 4c/kWhr. At 2c/kWhr by-product power, natural gas cost must rise to 4.65/106 Btu for the Steam-Iron Process to be competitive. 

Economics. At the present time, process economics are difficult to evaluate. Costs of hydrogen, low BTU fuel gas, or electric power are dependent on plant size, coal cost, plant location, product purity, and other environmental requirements that must be met. Using mid-1979 dollars, we have estimated 99% purity, 1000 psig hydrogen from a 50MM to 100MM SCF/D plant to cost between 1.25 to 1.60 per 1000 SCF ( 4- 5 per MM BTU) before taxes and profit. 

MMBtu NG). With special circumstances such as large-scale, high final product value, low coal cost or intangibles such as security of raw material supply, these type plants have been successfully built and operated on a limited basis. However, as crude oil and natural gas pricing has increased, interest in coal to chemicals has dramatically increased. 

When selling in competition with coal itself in conjunction with stack gas treatment, the cost of the raw material coal in solvent-refined coal is irrelevant (2). The principal considerations are the lower transportation cost per MM Btu and the reduced investment and maintenance at the power plant with the SRC. In a similar way, the relative position between SRC and other coal-derived fuels would not shift greatly because of coal cost. 

Producing methanol from biomass or coal costs about twice as much as producing it from natural gas. This encourages the use of nonrenewable petrochemical sources over biomass or coal. Considering the full production cycle, methanol from biomass emits less carbon dioxide than ethanol from biomass. This is because short rotation forestry, the feedstocks of methanol, requires the use of less fertilizer and diesel tractor fuel than the agricultural starch and sugar crops which are the feedstocks of ethanol. 

Likewise, both sources are optimistic about coal prices. The DOE expects that continued increases in mine productivity and the shift to low-cost coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming will lead to a gradual decline in mine mouth coal costs to approximately 20 per ton in 2020. 

The hard coal consumed in Europe originates predominantly from distant sources such as South Africa, Colombia, and Russia. A value-added chain analysis by Gerling et al. (2006) showed that about half the cost of hard coaP in Europe in 2005 comprised transport costs that vary closely with the price of oil. In addition, there is a substitution effect on the coal cost net of transport costs. It is not as strong as the oil-gas substitution effect, but it will rise if more coal is used for production of synthetic diesel, DME, or other fuels. Thus, switching from oil to coal as a primary energy basis for transport fuels will only partly avoid the negative effects from the oil market. 

If one ton of coal costs 36, which gives an energy cost of 0,006 per kWh And one barrel of oil costs 70, which gives an energy cost of 0.05 per kWh And one cubic foot of gas costs 0,008, which gives an energy cost of 0.03 per kWh... 

Uses Polymer tor industrial coalings, cost sensitive OEM and architectural coatings... 

It took the mine operator 4 months to get enough equipment to begin a new section. The company had to buy coal to meet the demands of contracts with power plants. The coal cost 12 per ton more than it had before the fire. Obviously, the operator suffered, and continued to do so for many months. His suffering, however, was minor compared to that of the 300 miners who were out of work for at least 5 months. The mine is in the Rocky Moimtains the nearest other source for jobs is more than 100 miles away and what about the people in the town who depended on these miners and their famihes to buy food, get haircuts, rent videos, and pay taxes ... 

In the past, the liquid coproducts of the Lurgi FBDB process and the required treatment plants have often been seen as major disadvantage. Due to rising prices for crude oil and the development of markets for such products, for example, in China, the coproducts including sulfur account for a significant share of overall economic benefit compensating up to 25% of the coal costs in some cases. Hence, it is even reasonable to try to maximize the quantity of liquid products [194]. 

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