Next-generation gasoline could come from coal

PIKEVILLE, KY — Researchers could be getting closer to developing a way to affordably convert coal into gasoline and diesel so it could be sold at prices competitive with fuels derived from crude oil, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

University of Kentucky professor Gerald Huffman said fuel from coal could be available in service stations in the United States within 15 years, AP said.

The research is important to coal-producing states like Kentucky because it would provide an additional market for the burnable mineral that's now largely used in electric-generating plants, said AP.

University President Lee T. Todd Jr. said the ramifications of the research have the potential to reach far beyond Kentucky.
The article said the technology has been available for decades to convert coal into motor fuels, but the cost has been far greater that that of refining crude.

According to AP, the Department of Energy has awarded the UK Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science a $5.7 million grant to develop cheaper methods to make the conversion.

The consortium — researchers from West Virginia and Auburn universities and the universities of Pittsburgh and Utah — also is looking at ways to more affordably convert natural gas to motor fuels.

John Winslow, coal fuels manager for the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, said he believes production of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from coal could begin in the United States between 2010 and 2015, AP reported.

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