Abstract: Coal: An Old Fuel with a Whole New Future

Alexander Lightman

Through innovative drilling techniques methane is now extracted from coal, leaving the sulfur and other polluting elements in the ground, and the surrounding soil unaffected. This methane is sold directly into natural gas pipelines at market prices. In the near future, the methane will produce pollution free industrial products. These include a sulfur-free, clean burning diesel fuel that meets all clean air standards through the year 2000 and goes directly into existing diesel vehicles with no modifications necessary. Additional products include Fischer-Tropsch waxes, which are now all imported, and Naptha.

The combination of coalbed methane drilling with the synthetic fuel plant turns the dirtiest fuel, coal, into one of the cleanest. The benefits of these plants are significant, as one plant can also produce cogenerated electricity, heat, fresh water, and an abundance of agricultural products from an attached large greenhouse that utilizes the excess carbon dioxide and waste heat. Jet is currently working to place our Synfuel plants in several natural gas and/or coal rich Asian nations.

Americans have the potential to eliminate oil imports by substituting the coal America possesses in abundance. We can also obtain tens of billions of dollars in contracts to develop pipelines and plants in China, India, and other rapidly developing countries, improving the quality of life and of the air significantly for humanity.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90960©1995 AAPG Southwest Section Meeting, Dallas, Texas