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Kanab • Jim Guthrie is not an alchemist, but if a pilot plant the entrepreneur plans for this southeastern Utah city is successful, he will be selling technology that can turn coal, wood and other carbon-based material into natural gas and products ranging from fertilizer to ammonia.
"You can even use it for cooking or making diesel and jet fuel," said Guthrie, a successful homebuilder from Riverside, Calif., who is now president of Viresco Energy. The company holds patents with the University of California Riverside (UCR) on a process that produces a clean-burning fuel by removing such toxic elements as lead and sulphur.
Guthrie said the process, which has been around since the era of gas lights, differs from other gasification processes because it uses less water and no oxygen. He said small-scale experiments showed promising results and that it's time to test the process in a pilot plant. That work was done at the Center for Environmental Research and Technology at UCR.
According to Guthrie, five similar pilot projects are testing the technology, which is drawing interest from major energy companies. He said big oil companies are all looking for natural gas sources.
"Just try and find a [drilling] lease," he said.
Guthrie said he became interested in locating the plant in Kanab after buying a ranch north of the city. He's hoping a proposed nearby mine would provide the needed coal. Alton Coal Co., has been granted permits to start mining high-quality coal on private property it owns near the town of Alton.
In late October, the Kanab City Council approved a zoning change on 10 acres of land in the southern end of the city for Guthrie to start construction of the plant he hopes to complete as early as June. Guthrie said the plant would be built on land leased from the state's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA).
Chris Fausett, a resource specialist with SITLA, said the agency is reviewing a special-use permit application for the property. Money generated by the lease would go into a trust account that benefits Utah's schools.
Guthrie said the plant would require as many as 60 construction workers and be staffed by eight researchers.
He said the new process, called hydrogasification, uses steam and high pressure to produce methane and other substances from any carbon-based material including coal, tires, plant materials or municipal waste.
There will be no emissions or flare process at the pilot plant, which would be large enough to convert five tons of coal or other materials each day. A yield that size does not require a clean-air permit from the state, he said.
If the pilot plant shows the process would be economically feasible on a large scale, the technology could be used to power industries around the world.
According to Guthrie, outgoing Sen. Bob Bennett helped the company secure a $2.4 million federal grant from the federal Department of Energy to help build the project. And Rep. Mike Noel,R-Kanab, helped in getting the grant through Bennett's office, said Guthrie.
Noel said the science looks promising but he'll wait for proof. "I don't count on anything until I see it come through all the way," he said.
Still, Noel is optimistic based on reports from objective sources. A review of the technology by Lamont Tyler, a retired professor of chemical engineering at the University of Utah, and scientists at the National Energy Technology Laboratory that awarded the grant to Viresco included positive evaluations, according to Noel.
"Before anything happened we wanted verification," said Noel. "We wanted to make sure it was legitimate since Utah has a reputation for being easily scammed," he said.
Tyler, who reviewed the technology at the University of California Riverside, said in an interview that he believes the technology could work. "But could it be economically feasible?" he added.
He said the demonstration he evaluated was from an experiment conducted in the laboratory.
Elaine Ezeritt, a chemical engineer with the U.S. Department of Energy and project manager for the Viresco grant, said the company won the money because its hydogasification process looks promising.
"This [project] is pretty unique," Ezeritt said by phone from her office in Morgantown, W.Va. "Gasification is one of the most environmentally positive ways to utilize coal."
She said the process does not require the oxygen stream needed in current gasification methods which will cut costs. The process also will create heat that can be used to generate the needed steam.
She didn't know exactly how much water is necessary, but said it will not be "excessive."
Noel said construction and operation of the plant could be a financial boon for southwestern Utah. "Hopefully Alton and Kanab will benefit."
Kanab Mayor Nina Laycook said the zoning change was granted after city officials were assured the process was safe and would not produce toxic emissions.
"They [Viresco] did their homework," she said.
She also hopes it brings jobs."Anytime you get jobs to help the community, it's good, absolutely."
Creating cleaner energy
A pilot plant planned near Kanab will test a new process to produce substitute natural gas from coal and other sources.
During the Viresco Process, a carbon-based substance — coal, wood or even garbage — is converted to a gas containing a significant amount of methane in a process using steam and hydrogen. That gas is then purified and converted to a synthetic gas. In the third step, the synthetic gas is converted into a synthetic fuel. Examples of such synthetic fuels include diesel, methanol and dimethyl ether (DME). The fuel gas can also be converted into electric power.
Source: Viresco Energy