Ohio Firm Proposes Plan for Synfuels Plant

An Ohio firm is seeking federal funds to build a $400-million synthetic fuel plant that would use the state’s high-sulfur coal to produce liquid fuel, but company officials say the idea is only in the planning stages.

“A lot of conditions have not been met,” said E. S. Cowan, chairman and chief executive officer of Frontier Energy Corp. of Willoughby. “It’s premature yet to talk about it.”

A proposal submitted to the Energy Department said the plant near Painesville in northeast Ohio would employ 300 people and would provide an additional 150 coal-mining jobs in the state.

“A new commercial plant will be built to produce 24,000 barrels per day of ‘synthetic crude product’ using a blend of Ohio high-sulfur coal and Alberta bitumen,” according to the proposal.

“The finished product would be a low-sulfur, clean liquid fuel, which can be used in refineries for feed stock to produce transportation fuel or by utilities and industry as a boiler fuel, thereby reducing the burning for high-sulfur coal.”