Over the past decade, Clean Coal Technologies, Inc. has developed processes
that address what we believe are the key technology priorities of the global
coal industry. We currently have three processes in our intellectual property
portfolio:
The original process, called Pristine, is designed to remove moisture and volatile
matter, rendering a high-efficiency, cleaner thermal coal. The process has been
tested successfully on bituminous and subbituminous coals, and lignite from
various parts of the United States and from numerous countries around the world.
Our third process, called Pristine-SA, is designed to eliminate 100% of the
volatile matter in the feed coal and to achieve stable combustion by co-firing
it with biomass or natural gas. The process is expected to produce a cleaner
fuel that eliminates the need for emissions scrubbers and the corollary production
of toxic coal ash. We anticipate that treated coal that is co-fired with other
energy resources will burn as clean as natural gas.
Anticipated Benefits of the Technology:
Reduction of undesired emissions and greenhouse gases through the removal of
compounds that are not required for combustion in conventional boilers.
Cost savings and environmental impact reduction. Our pre-combustion solution
is expected to be significantly less expensive than post-combustion solutions
such as emissions scrubbers. Not only are the latter prohibitively expensive,
they produce coal ash containing the “scrubbed” compounds, which
is dumped in toxic waste disposal sites where it may pose continuing environmental
risk. Coal treated using our processes may eliminate the need for post-combustion
emissions scrubbers and the resulting toxic ash.
Potential use of compounds removed from treated coal. Volatile matter captured
in the Pristine process is removed in the form of hydrocarbon liquids that we
believe will be easily blended with crude oil or used as feedstock for various
products. For example, sulfur, which can be removed using the Pristine process,
is a basic feedstock for fertilizer. The harvesting of hydrocarbon liquids from
abundant, cheaper coal is a potentially lucrative side benefit of our processes.
Successful testing of the Pristine M process resulted in an increase in BTU
of the processed coal and a reduction in moisture content making it less expensive
to transport (as moisture has been removed) with the end product being a dust
free stabilized enhanced coal which we believe will address the issue of coal
dust pollution during transportation.
Energy Independence. To the extent that volatile matter is removed from coal,
coal’s use as an energy resource is greatly improved, enabling the United
States and other coal-rich countries to move towards energy independence owing
to coal’s greater abundance.
Our original Pristine coal treating process extracts the volatile matter (solidified
gases or pollutant material) from a wide variety of coal types by heating the
mineral as it transitions through several disparate heat chambers, causing the
volatile matter to turn to gas and escape the coal, leaving behind a cleaner-burning
fuel source. Historically, the primary technological challenge of extracting
this volatile matter has been maintaining the structural and chemical integrity
of the carbon, while achieving enough heat to turn the volatile matter into
a gaseous state. Heating coal to temperatures well in excess of 700° Fahrenheit
is necessary to quickly turn volatile matter gaseous. However, heating coal
to these temperatures has generally caused the carbon in the coal to disintegrate
into an unusable fine powder (coal dusting). Our patented flow process transitions
the coal through several atmospherically independent heat chambers controlled
at increasingly higher temperatures. These heat chambers are infused with inert
gases, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), preventing the carbon from combusting.
We have identified the optimum combination of atmospheres, levels of inert gases,
transport speed, and temperatures necessary to quickly extract and capture volatile
matter, while maintaining the structural and chemical integrity of the coal.
A first stream is predominantly water that is extracted from the coal. Although
expected to be 100% pure (water removed from coal is condensed from its vapor
state), it may contain some contaminants.
A second stream, produced in the de-volatizing stage of the process, is the
condensed light hydrocarbons gases that we call “coal-derived liquids”,
or CDLs. These could prove to be the most valuable component of the process.
It is anticipated that the CDLs will resemble a crude oil (probably sweet crude
if the sulfur content of the feed coal is low) resulting in a readily-marketable
product. In the Pristine-M process, de-volatization is controlled and optimized
to meet the needs of drying and stabilizing the coal, minimizing the production
of gas or liquid byproducts.
The third stream is the heavy tar-like liquid potentially marketable to the
asphalt and coal tar industry. This stream is entirely absent in the Pristine-M
process which is focused only on the task of drying and stabilizing.
The Pristine technology has three distinct primary applications: the cleaning
of coal for direct use as fuel for power stations and other industrial and commercial
applications; the extraction of potentially valuable chemical by-products for
commercial sale; and the use of processed coal as a feed stock for gasification
and liquefaction (CTG & CTL) projects.
Pristine-M de-watering Process. During the fourth quarter of 2011, the Company
filed a provisional patent application for a new technology focused on the de-watering
of coal. The new process, Pristine-M, is unique in that it retains elements
of the original process but has discovered a technology that stabilizes the
dried coal, rendering it impermeable and easy to transport with low to no risk
of spontaneous combustion. The latter results have proved elusive for the majority
of companies that have entered the market with coal de-watering technologies.
The Pristine-M process, sharing some of the scientific principles and engineering
components that underpin the Pristine process, is also a modular design that
includes a section where the coal is partially de-volatized and then coupled
to as many drying and stabilization modules as may be required to achieve a
client’s desired level of production. Each of the modules is designed
to handle 30-tons/hr and, similar to the Pristine process, relies on components
that are primarily available off-the-shelf and have already stood the test of
time as to their reliability and durability.
Pristine-SA Process. In June 2013, we filed a provisional patent application
for a new process to be called Pristine-SA. The new process is designed to produce
a coal product that is devoid of all volatiles and comes together with a solution
for ensuring efficient and clean combustion on a level with natural gas. Now
that the application on the basic concept has been filed, we expect to continue
further research and development to address Pristine-SA’s potential application
in various fuel and non-fuel product areas.
Our technology has been tested and proven under laboratory and pilot scale
conditions in Pittsburg, PA, and the results studied by LEIDOS (previously SAIC)
as well as certain potential strategic partners as part of their due diligence
on CCTI and the CCTI technology. To date, testing of about 40 coal types from
all over the world has been completed. We have also benchmarked our technology
against the Carnegie Mellon simulation model with excellent results. Testing
has shown no evidence of coal dusting, self-combustion, moisture re-absorption,
or other technical concerns that might hinder commercialization. As at December
2017 we have successfully tested Powder River Basin coal at out testing facility
at AES Oklahoma.
While we believe that all of our Pristine technologies offer vast potential
for commercialization, our market entry strategy right now is focused on the
Pristine -M technology that we believe offers an immediate opportunity to monetize
our intellectual property. The specific opportunity is in Asia that, at the
moment, is focused almost entirely on the need to produce a dry and stable coal
to meet the growing need of coal-fired power plants. Indonesia is currently
one of the largest suppliers of thermal coal to India and China, but Indonesian
coal suffers from its high moisture content and low calorific content. Since
January 2017 we have engaged in advanced discussions with the representatives
from the US DOE and also key representatives from Wyoming. As we successfully
tested PRB at our test facility at AES it has led to a unique opportunity to
upgrade PRB coal and export it through several ports in the US and also from
Canadian and Mexican ports. Since our successful tests at AES coal power utility
we believe that the issues currently facing the upgrading of coal and its stabilization
have been effectively addressed by the Pristine-M technology and we continue
to work with both US government bodies and US producers along with key international
energy providers.
SAIC, LEIDOS has produced designs for both the Pristine and the Pristine-M
processes. The Pristine design provides for the deployment of standard operational
modules, each with annual capacity of 166,000 metric tons, providing the flexibility
to be configured in accordance with customers’ individual production capacity
requirements. The coal cleaning process will typically be energy self-sufficient,
relying upon captured methane and other byproducts to fuel the coal cleaning
process. Since Q1 2017 Kiewit Engineering group have been employed to further
enhance the process and update the commercial designs that were previously produced.
