The Ohio EPA awarded the final air permit for the Ohio River Clean Fuels project to Baard Energy. The Ohio River Clean Fuels LLC (ORCF) project is a 53,000 barrel alternative fuels coal-to-liquids project that will be located near Wellsville, Ohio. The estimated cost of the plant is $5 billion.

The plant will be built on 650 acres in cooperation with the Columbiana County Port Authority adjacent to the Wellsville Port Intermodal Facility. The site is near Wellsvile, Ohio close to the border of West Virginia and Pennsylvania in the Midwest coal corridor.

The project is expected to be built in three phases. Each phase will include two coal gasifier trains that feed syngas to one FT reactor unit. When all three phases are complete, the plant will convert 28,000 tons per day of coal and biomass. The coal will be Pitt #8, but other coals in the area can also be used for feedstock as well as biomass.

Baard Energy selected the Shell Gasification Process technology for the plant. The Shell Gasification Techonology is well proven. It’s in use in Europe and China projects. The Shell gasifiers have been operated successfully with up to 30% biomass blended into the coal feedstock at the coal gasification plant in Buggenum, The Netherlands.

The facility will have three Fischer-Tropsch trains and produce 50,000 barrels per day of ultra-clean diesel and jet fuel, 3,000 barrels per day of LPGs and 250 MW electricity. Baard’s presentation at the Coal Gasification Technology conference in 2005 referenced Rentech’s Fischer-Tropsch technology, but this has not been confirmed with a news release.

The CO2 will be removed using the Linde Rectisol process. Once the CO2 is removed it will be used for injection into existing oilfields for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Baard has had discussions with Marathon Oil regarding an offtake agreement for the CO2. There are oil fields in production within 20 miles of the plant site that can utilize the CO2 for EOR.

Baard has discussed offtake agreements with the Air Force as well as local petroleum refining companies for the jet fuel, naptha and diesel. Civil and Environmental Consultants and CH2MHill assisted with the permitting process. AMEC Paragon performed the front end engineering and development (FEED). The City of Wellsville, the State of Ohio and local labor leaders support the project.

With the air permit issued, Baard will be able to finalize the lending requirements and proceed with the detailed engineering, procurement and construction.