Celanese, Pertamina to make ethanol from coal
Thursday, July 19 2012 - 11:39 PM WIB
US listed Celanese Corporation and Pertamina had signed a cooperation deal on Thursday July 19, 2012 at Borobudur hotel in Jakarta, to make ethanol from coal through gassification technology.
"Today's deal is to confirm both parties commitment on the project, which will be finalised in the next four to six months," said Celanese Chief Financial Officer Steven Sterlin to Petromindo.com yesterday.
Sterlin added that the first plant project is expected to commence in the next six months, assuming no problem in securing any of the required government permits.
"We plan to construct four plants in Indonesia until 2020, with the first to start operation in next 46 months," he said, adding that each plant will take at least 30 months to construct.
Each of the four plants will have the installed capacity to produce 1.1 million tons or 350 million gallons of ethanol per year, with no by-product, from the gassification of roughly 4 million tons of coal.
"Our technology has allowed the gassification of all types of calorie coal. We are targeting to use coal with CV of between 3,400 and 4,500 kcal/kg for this project," said Celanese Vice President James Jones, adding that the investment needed for each plant could reach between US$1.5 to US$2 billion, amounting to a total of US$6.8 billion for all four plants.
"With the estimated consumption of up to 40 million tons of gasoline per year in Indonesia by 2020, we figure the country will need 4 million tons of ethanol to reach E10 (ethanol 10 percent)," Jones said.
Sterlin added that both Celanese and Pertamina will also discuss key matters such as other possible investors, involved coal producers, plant locations and specification as well as total shared investments during the next four to six months period.
A Texas based advance fuel technology company, Celanese currently is involved with two other similar projects in US and China, though the US project transforms shale gas into ethanol.
"While gas based ethanol's production cost stands at US$3 per litter, coal based ethanol should sands at well below US$2 per litter, though it will depend on the coal specification," said Jones.
Editing by David Mustakim