Lignite Research Council to hear two R&D proposals
Two innovative lignite research projects will be considered at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15th a review board comprised of representatives from industry and government organizations.
The two projects seeking funding from the state of North Dakota are:
- Mattoon Power Enterprises’ “Bolt-on” CO2 Capture System – The project is supported by Great River Energy, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and North American Coal Corporation. The primary technical focus of this project is to examine the operations of a test rig that targets reducing cost and improving the efficiency of post combustion options for capturing carbon dioxide with the use of potassium carbonate. The project is expected to take one year. The request from the state is for $650,000. Total project costs are $1.6 million.
- The Energy & Environmental Research Center’s Extraction and Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from Coal Fly Ash and Bottom Ash – EERC is partnering with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy in proposing the project. The project is an 18-month endeavor with a total budget of $510,000. The request from the North Dakota Industrial Commission is $30,000. The DOE is contributing $400,000. The project entails work that will lead to an economical extraction technique to remove Rare Earth Elements from fly ash and bottom ash in a concentrated form.
The Lignite Research and Development Program is a partnership between the state of North Dakota and industry. Since its beginning in 1987, the program has provided $63.5 million in state funds for more than 200 lignite R&D projects. The total investment to date for all projects is more than $650 million. For every state dollar invested, more than nine dollars comes from other sources – including industry, research entities and the Department of Energy, demonstrating the truly collaborative nature of the research.