Gasification Plant Unique in US Energy Mix

摘要

Sprawling like a miniature city on the plains outside Beu-lah, North Dakota, the Great Plains Coal Gasification Plant has not had a simple history. First conceived in the early 1970s, the massive plant has gone from being a white elephant dispatched in a sheriffs sale to one of the jewels in North Dakota's energy crown. The plant, which takes lignite coal and turns it into synthetic natural gas, also collects carbon dioxide, which is sold and eventually injected into mature oil fields. The plant "is unique in North America and very important for us, especially when you consider the amount of coal reserves that we have," Paul Lucy, director of the Division of Economic Development and Finance for the North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, told Natural Gas Week during a recent tour of the facility.