Evergreen Energy, Sumitomo plans Kalimantan coal upgrading project

Denver-based firm Evergreen Energy Inc. said it and and Japanese firm Sumitomo Corporation have agreed with a major Indonesian mining group to proceed with development of engineering specifications, economic evaluation, marketability analysis and further coal tests for a 1.5 million ton per year K-Fuel coal refinery in Kalimantan, with the intent to expand the plant capacity in future years.

Evergreen's proprietary K-Fuel process uses heat and pressure to physically and chemically transform high moisture, low BTU coals into a more energy efficient, lower emission fuel.

Advancement to the engineering specifications phase follows acceptance by the three entities of results from rigorous tests on coal samples from Kalimantan mines that were subjected to the patented K-Fuel coal refinement process, the company said.

The tests found that Kalimantan coal worked well with the K-Fuel process - experiencing significantly improved heating value when compared to the raw lignite coal drawn from the mines, it added.

K-Fuel refined coal had 64 percent less moisture, 56 percent less mercury and a 52 percent increase in heat value from 3666 kcal/kg to to 5571 kcal/kg.

"Our Asian subsidiary began discussions with this major mining group last fall about the K-Fuel technology's ability to address their need to upgrade low-sulfur Indonesian lignite before it is barged to high-demand markets elsewhere in Asia," said Kevin Collins, president and CEO of Evergreen. "We signed a multi-phase agreement with this widely known and respected organization, have successfully completed the initial phase and are now aggressively executing development of detailed engineering specifications, economic evaluations and marketability with the goal of constructing a K-Fuel refinery at a site on Kalimantan Island."(alex)