DOE funds new coal gasification process

Small Arizona company Diversified Energy has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize a new, more flexible coal gasification process.

HydroMax®, a technology licensed from Alchemix Corporation, is to be used at CertainTeed Gypsum, a leading wallboard manufacturer, to help the company reduce and stabilize its natural gas costs.

CertainTeed Gypsum operates dozens of North American wallboard and finishing plants, all using substantial amounts of natural gas.

Diversified is to conduct tests and design activities focused on using HydroMax to gasify coal for the production of synthetic gas for use by CertainTeed, and ultimately other industrial applications.

The project is to validate system performance across a broad range of coal types, including low rank coal.

Diversified says its HydroMax technology is based on a molten-metals reactor. It claims it scales to the 5-100 MWe range, is compact, allows flexibility in feedstocks, is lower cost than traditional gasifiers, and offers high efficiencies.

The U.S. industrial sector is the largest natural gas user, accounting for more than 6.6 trillion cubic feet (~$47 billion) of natural gas in 2006, with erratic pricing anywhere from $5-$15 per million BTU.

Another startup company, Serious Materials, is attacking the substantial amounts of fossil fuels required in producing gypsum wallboard by producing a separate, less energy-intensive product.

The company's EcoRock low-energy drywall is "the first and only green replacement for standard drywall," it claims.