Given our reliance on imported oil – when is it right for Australia to utilise “coal to liquids” CTL technology?

While reading the David Archibald book – Twilight of Abundance – I got to thinking about coal to liquids technology and when might Australia get serious about being independent from imports for our transport fuels.
David sent me this informative 1999 UK Govt summary “Coal Liquefaction” – Technology Status Report 010 – Cleaner Coal Technology Programme – 14 pages 652KB. There are many processes – there was a trial Australian plant at Morwell using the low grade brown coals there – The Brown Coal Liquefaction Process The BCL process was developed by NEDO of Japan to a 50 tonnes/day pilot-plant scale, constructed at Morwell in Victoria, Australia and was operated over the period 1985-1990.
I wonder if Australia has future plans in some Canberra bunker.

12 thoughts on “Given our reliance on imported oil – when is it right for Australia to utilise “coal to liquids” CTL technology?”

  1. Clearly it is a fundamental responsibility of government to foster & protect the physical & social wellbeing of its people. This duty is inexorably founded on maintaining & facilitating the framework for providing the necessary requirements for society to function.
    The provision & distribution of energy resources being central to all activities in life is therefore a core provision for any society to exist & prosper.
    In Australia we have been blessed with large energy resources in coal & gas. The export of these commodities is the cornerstone of our export trade (www.rba.gov.au/chart-pack/balance-payments.html). As such these energy exports play a pivotal role in maintaining the balance of payments & therefore the exchange rate. Simply put, energy exports underpin our standard of living.
    Australia has always had higher interest rate regimes than most other developed western democracies. This has been the case since well before Federation. Simply put we need foreign capital & investment & a higher return on a “safe”investment is the incentive which brings it here.
    If the balance of payments goes south, interest rates will by default massively change. The mortgage belt will not be a happy place.
    Most people know that we in this country are reliant on imported oil products. Most if not all of our domestic oil refineries are closed or going to be closed as being internationally un competitive. As a result we rely completely on the import of finished products to keep the economy working.
    Anecdotally, we only have 4 – 6 weeks lead time between the status quo & an energy crisis.
    This alone leaves Australia exposed to the pricing & supply foibles of the world market. Not a very good policy in the light of world as it is. The West, including Australia, has willingly gone to sleep at the tiller. We are all sailing along into unchartered waters, steered by flash dressing captains on the grog & chasing a bit of skirt ( Costa Concordia Style!)
    IT DOESN”T HAVE TO BE THE CASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Coal to Gas to Liquid ( Diesel & Naptha ) can competitively produce all our needs domestically here in Australia & NO GOVERNMENT IS LIFTING A FINGER! :-
    joannenova.com.au/2010/11/unintended-consequences-greens-protect-coal-deposits-and-destroy-rainforest/
    I put a question out there & Richard Courtney, who has the runs on the board by building a plant himself, responded:- comment 65
    This is not an issue to be ignored. WAKE UP AUSTRALIA!

  2. tom dundas:

    I don’t know the economics of switching the Victorian brown coal power stations to black coal, but the emission savings would be huge; far larger than anything achievable with wind turbines. One way of shutting up the Greens??? (If anything can)

    It would probably be better to up-grade the power stations to current german standards, but that brown coal looks like the ideal feed stock. There is also a bit in SA which could be available because, according to our local incompetents (a.k.a. the government ), we will be supplied by wind farms.

    Using synthetic fuel in combination with turbo diesel vehicles would make a selling point for any Government capable of thinking 4-6 weeks ahead. Do you know of any?

  3. @Graeme No 3

    The economics of switching the Vic lignite power stations to black coal as fuel is absolutely bankrupting. Each power station is designed to burn fuel from the mine deposit it is built adjacent to. They (ie. the mine and the station) are completely symbiotic – that is, the coal from the mine can only be burnt in that specific station, and that specific station can only burn the coal from that specific deposit

    You should also note the actual specifications of these lignite deposits – in particular, their moisture/ash/energy characteristics (just Google it)

    Some time ago, I had the opportunity to observe the various instrumental monitorings of demand from both the large Loy Yang power station and the broader LaTrobe Valley complex. I observed these monitors at 3pm Wednesday and again at 3am Thursday; I chose these times on what seemed a reasonable assumption of peak and low demand. The actual difference in total demand was less than 2% … think about that a moment

    @ Philip Bradley

    In-situ gasification of coal actually requires very specific geological conditions to be feasible, and I mean very specific. Few known deposits can meet these requirements

    Oh, and most of the coal deposits in WA (including the Pilbara) are well known to geologists and have been for quite a few decades. That politicians and journos have just discovered them is unremarkable

  4. Warwick, there is no need for CLT at present. Australia still has lots of oil and gas reserves to be exploited if governments would allow. There are large deposits of oil shale. oil shale was exploited in NSW for over 50 years on the western side of the Blue Mountains ( around the Lithgow area and Joadja in the Bowral area) Oil shale was also exploited in Tasmania. In the 1980’s there was a pilot plant built near Rockhamption to exploit the huge Stuart deposit. There is also a very large deposit near Julia creek up Mt Isa way. The last two deposits can be worked by open cut. There are also large oil shale deposits deeper in WA onshore oil/gas fields and in SA/Qld gas/oil deposits. A number of companies such as Beach are already stimulating deposits with fracking technology.
    When there is a need for coal to oil the most likely place will be close to Sydney which is Australia’s largest market. Some may have heard of the company BORAL which stands for Bitumen Oil Refinery Australia Ltd. They used to take coal liquids from coking ovens of BHP and CRA in Wollongong and refine the products to oil. The bottom seam (Wongawilli, American Creek, Tongarra) of the coal in the Wollongong area have high liquids & hydrogenation yields.

  5. To add a small detail to Cementafriend’s comment:

    The oil shale workings out back of Lithgow (which are still accessible by dirt road and worth a day trip) were developed during the desperation of WW2. The technology of the time used underground retort concepts and was both very inefficient and dangerous. Today’s drilling/pumping techniques with surface distillation are far more economical and safe

    It is of interest that certain sedimentary transition regimes (geological) on the flanks of the Lithgow Seam (eg. Blue Mountains Colliery, now closed) are high in liquid hydrocarbons. Ive personally observed an operating underground face “dripping” these liquids

  6. Ian -Mention of oil shale workings brought a couple of things to mind. 1. Leonie Knapman wrote a book on Glen Davis which I meant to buy when it was published. I believe she lived there. She also wrote a book on “Joadja Creek- The Oil Shale Town”. I see on the net she lives in Mittagong now. 2. I recall some Lithgow seam mines had problems with Kerogen in their coal. It has a low density (1.3SG) but relatively high ash (15-18%) and caused ash penalties for low ash exports. 3. There is/was an access road from Hartley to Blue Mountains Colliery and the workings are not far from old Shale oil workings. I think the shale oil seams are more associated with seams above the Lithgow (ie the Lidsdale and Wolgan seams -the latter related to the Wongawilli seam) but in some of the mines such as Blue Mountains the seams merge. 4. Many years ago I visited the pit top of Blue Mts Colliery and talked to the manager. in conservation he mentioned a uncle who worked the mine with pick and shovel in the 1950’s and sold coal for home heating.

  7. @Cementafriend

    >I recall some Lithgow seam mines had problems with Kerogen in their coal. It has a low density (1.3SG) but relatively high ash (15-18%) and caused ash penalties for low ash exports<

    Yep

    Now that BMC is closed, I can add that at the time I observed an operating face "weeping" kerogen, that Colliery was up for sale. I was unable to get a reliable answer to the question of ash level so I surreptitiously took a sample off the cleat and stuffed it in my overalls to ask a lab later that day for an analysis 🙂

    Glen Davis is still accessible via the quite well-kept dirt road running past Angus Place Colliery. Fascinating day trip

  8. Ian, We could write more on the above but bore everyone silly. However, for everyone’s information there is a little booklet put out by JCB & QCB called “Australian Black Coals”. This has properties of various coal seams from mines in eastern states and one in Tas. Blue Mts Colliery has the code D6-1. It contains coal conversion potential for 22 different coal seams. From this list the best one seems to be Millimerran A which is classified as very high volatile sub-bituminous and is located south west of Toowoomba in Qld. There is a power station there owned by Intergen see www.intergen.com/millmerran/

  9. Cementafriend, agreed. I have avoided giving detailed information on more general websites for exactly that reason – audience boredom. I’ve done work on Millmerran quite a few times, but have forborne comment on it here

    My last comment is that to my personal knowledge, there have been intermittent attempts over the last 10 years at least to find an economical method of extracting hydrocarbons from the LaTrobe Valley lignite deposits. I’m unsure whether these projects are now ongoing

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