June 23, 2017 - Coal states are hoping to create new ways to turn carbon into money-making enterprises after renewables and natural gas have taken a bite out of their market share and the world is moving to reduce its dependence on coal.

State governments where coal is a major part of the economy are pouring millions into clean coal research.  Industry is looking for ways to not only capture carbon produced by burning coal, but find ways to put the emissions to work and make products out of carbon.

“We’re looking at CO2 as a challenge, but also an opportunity,” Mike Holmes, of the Lignite Energy Council, told Inside Energy.

North Dakota, the coal industry and federal government have sunk millions into carbon research in recent years.  Projects in North Dakota and other states are currently in the early stages and will require more investment before they’re ready to use on a commercial scale.

One of the projects is North Dakota’s Allam Cycle, a power plant that is designed to capture the carbon dioxide it creates and will use some of the CO2 to power the plant.

But, plans for the rest of the carbon dioxide only include underground storage where pressure and temperature have to be just right.

“We would have to have the right kind of rocks to store the CO2 in and a rock that would form a seal over that storage layer,” Geologist Dan Daly told a Nebraska teachers’ conference.

The coal industry is looking for other ways to turn carbon into cash.  The Great Plains Synfuels Plant gasifies coal and turns it into various products.

“Knowing that we probably will be in a carbon-constrained world going forward, we looked at it as an opportunity for generating more revenue,”Joan Dietz of Great Plains Synfuels Plant told Inside Energy.

The plant captures half the CO2 it creates.  Some will soon be used to make type of fertilizer for farmers’ crops known as urea.  The rest of the carbon dioxide will be shipped to Saskatchewan where it will then be sent into old oil wells where it will help boost production.

Mike Holmes says there is potential to do the same type of “enhanced oil recovery” in the Bakken if researchers can develop the technology to send CO2 into newly tapped shale formation.

Even with fracking, producers can only extract a small portion of the crude in rock, but by injecting CO2 more oil could be recovered.

“It would double one of the biggest oil plays the United States has had,” Holmes said.