Wyoming Funds Clean Coal Research

The University of Wyoming is ready to research clean coal and wants proposals from both academic and industry organizations. With the help of the Wyoming state government, they’ve arranged for up to $4.5 million in research funds — which can be matched by non-state funds.

State funding comes from two specific appropriations made by the state legislature. One was made during the 2008 legislative session for $3.8 million. An additional $677,519 remains from a previous appropriation.

The state government is focused on finding better ways to use Wyoming’s coal deposits. Mining is the state’s most lucrative industry  and is crucial to the local economy. The state has an estimated reserve of 68 billion tons of coal. That number, combined with the $48 million the state government collects in sales tax from the mining industry in a given years, makes it an unusually ideal place to explore clean coal.

Ron Harper, the chair of the School of Energy Resources’ Energy Resources Council, commented:

"Wyoming can play a pivotal role as our nation moves toward a goal of less dependency on foreign sources of energy and at the same time balancing the needs of our environment."

The University of Wyoming is specifically soliciting proposals on the following:

• pre-combustion and pre-gasification
• combustion and gasification design
• post-combustion
• post-gasification gas clean-up
• advanced cycle technologies.
• air separation
• carbon capture and sequestration
• in situ gasification
• coal to liquids or coal to hydrogen technologies
• economic analyses

Proposals are due by August 1, 2008 and further information about the proposal process is available on the University of Wyoming website. They will be evaluated specifically on the benefits that a given course of research will have for the state of Wyoming, as well as the potential for improving the use of the state’s coal resources. Furthermore, the results of any research funded through the program will be publically available.

The past few weeks have seem phenomenal amounts of money being made available to companies willing to invest time in cleantech. This offer from the state legislature of Wyoming and the University of Wyoming is only noteworthy because of the specificity of the the funding offering. Wyoming legislaturers know that the taxes that come from the coal mining business are going to stop if burning coal is no longer an option for energy production. It sounds like they’ve thought about the situation and are working hard to make sure that they aren’t put in the uncomfortable position of pushing for coal use despite environmental issues. It’s a great display of adaptability on the part of the Wyoming state legislature.

Photo by Omnivoreceo