http://www.princeton.edu/pei/energy/publications/texts/LarsonYang-China-DME-cooking-ESD-2004.pdf

http://www.aboutdme.org/ DME is the furl of the future for transportation...

World Coal Association Coal to Liquids Emissions Reductions from Synthetic Fuels (Europe) Source: Alliance for Synthetic Fuels in Europe Converting coal to a liquid fuel (CTL) – a process referred to as coal liquefaction – allows coal to be utilised as an alternative to oil. There are two different methods for converting coal into liquid fuels: Direct liquefaction works by dissolving the coal in a solvent at high temperature and pressure. This process is highly efficient, but the liquid products require further refining to achieve high grade fuel characteristics. Indirect liquefaction gasifies the coal to form a ‘syngas’ (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide). The syngas is then condensed over a catalyst – the ‘Fischer-Tropsch’ process – to produce high quality, ultra-clean products. An array of products can be made via these processes – ultra-clean petroleum and diesel, as well as synthetic waxes, lubricants, chemical feedstocks and alternative liquid fuels such as methanol and dimethyl ether (DME). Where is it Used? South Africa has been producing coal-derived fuels since 1955 and has the only commercial coal to liquids industry in operation today. Not only are CTL fuels used in cars and other vehicles, South African energy company Sasol’s CTL fuels also have approval to be utilised in commercial jets. Currently around 30% of the country’s gasoline and diesel needs are produced from indigenous coal. The total capacity of the South African CTL operations now stands in excess of 160,000bbl/d. CTL is particularly suited to countries that rely heavily on oil imports and that have large domestic reserves of coal. There are a number of CTL projects around the world at various stages of development. Liquid fuels from coal can be delivered from an existing pump at a filling station via existing distribution infrastructure and used, without modification, in the current vehicle fleet. CTL Outside of Transportation Fuels produced from coal also have potential outside the transportation sector. In many developing countries, health impacts and local air quality concerns have driven calls for the use of clean cooking fuels. Replacing traditional biomass or solid fuels with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has been the focus of international aid programmes. LPG however, is an oil derivative – and is thus affected by the expense and price volatility of crude oil. Coal-derived dimethyl ether (DME) is receiving particular attention today as it is a product that holds out great promise as a domestic fuel. DME is non-carcinogenic and non-toxic to handle and generates less carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon air pollution than LPG. DME can also be used as an alternative to diesel for transport, as well as for on and off-grid power applications. Benefits of CTL Coal to liquids has a number of benefits: Coal is affordable and available worldwide enabling countries to access domestic coal reserves – and a well-supplied international market - and decrease reliance on oil imports, improving energy security. Coal liquids can be used for transport, cooking, stationary power generation, and in the chemicals industry. Coal-derived fuels are sulphur-free, low in particulates, and low in nitrogen oxides. Liquid fuels from coal provide ultra-clean cooking fuels, alleviating health risks from indoor air pollution Increasing energy demand and rises in vehicle ownership means that it is important for countries to review the balance of their energy supply mix. 96% of all energy used in transport comes from petroleum; it therefore dominates the transport sector. CTL – along with gas-to-liquids (GTL) and biomass-to-liquids (BTL) - allows countries the option of diversifying the liquid fuel supplies. Interest in constructing CTL plants tends to increase when the oil price is high and countries are concerned about the cost of their oil imports. When the oil price drops, the economics of coal to liquids plants are less favourable. GHG Emissions The conversion of any feedstock to liquid fuels is an energy intensive one. Emissions across the entire process have to be considered. While the coal to liquids process is more CO2 intensive than conventional oil refining, there are options for preventing or mitigating emissions. For coal to liquids plants, carbon capture and storage can be a low cost method of addressing CO2 concerns. Where co-processing of coal and biomass is undertaken, and combined with CCS, greenhouse gas emissions over the full fuel cycle may be as low as one-fifth of those from fuels provided by conventional oil. See Also IEA Clean Coal Centre – CTL Report ©2011 World Coal Association

Big Oil says to clean up shale gas business Thu, Dec 8 2011 * Big Oil says to lift shale game standards * Green groups say they heard it before * Companies see room to reduce costs By Tom Bergin DOHA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Big oil and gas companies say their increasing dominance of shale gas exploration will bring improved drilling practices and should end the safety lapses that have led to environmental opposition to the fast-growing, multi-billion dollar industry. Cases of water contamination and the leakage of flammable methane gas into homes are due to occasionally shoddy activities by some of the small players, who developed the industry over the past decade, rather than fundamental problems with shale gas drilling, some industry executives said. Oil majors such as Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have begun to buy up the first movers in the industry. At the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Doha this week, big company bosses said they would help the shale industry improve its game. "I think Shell, or for that matter Exxon, coming in a big way into this shale gas operation will actually drive the standards up," Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser told a joint press conference with Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson. Environmentalists said, however, the desire to avoid legislation was likely behind Big Oil's claims of future better practices. "We do not believe this. The large companies violate the law regularly," said Amy Mall, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. The oil and gas industry fears that public opposition will drive increased regulation and restrictions on where it can drill. "Nature has given mankind the gift of natural gas. But our hope now is, 'Please don't let government mess it up'," Jim Mulva, chief executive of ConocoPhillips told the Congress. The industry leaders say their massive research efforts can help ensure the safety of the 'fracking' technique, which involves blasting water, sand and chemicals into deep underground reservoirs to release the gas trapped inside. "I think companies like Exxon, we always put a high priority on technology, so whether that's shale gas or any other resource development, technology is a key part of it for us," Rich Kruger, president of Exxon's production unit, told Reuters. Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. oil and gas industry's main trade association, said tough financial constraints on some of the companies that led the shale gas revolution may have contributed to some of the problems associated with drilling. "There's a lot of competitors in the business, and as people are driving those opportunities and looking for opportunities ... it tends to move rapidly, and sometimes they're not thinking of the total consequences," he said. But Erika Staaf, clean water advocate with Philadelphia-based PennEnvironment, said the claim that bad practices would be phased out as so-called "rogue" operators are taken over was not new. "That is a refrain that we've heard again and again," she said. One thing the arrival of the big players to the market is unlikely to bring is additional money. As the business expands, companies are seeking to reduce the amount of spending on drilling. Shell has established a "well manufacturing" joint venture in China, which it hopes will provide more cost-effective means of drilling shale gas wells that can be applied worldwide. Speaking at the WPC, Andrew Gould, chairman of Schlumberger , the world's largest provider of services to the oil industry, said companies had significant opportunities to cut costs. "Current methods are wasteful and expensive," he said.

Shale game by Claire Poole | Published December 9, 2011 at 12:00 PM 121211 YEenergy.jpg Scott Richardson, a co-founding principal of RBC Richardson Barr, has seen a lot in a 25-year career as an energy investment banker. But he's never seen a market like this, with dealmaking veering from busy to quiet to busy again and capital markets swinging open to closed to open. "It's been a schizophrenic market," he told an industry luncheon. What hasn't changed has been the excitement over shale, the sedimentary rock that holds pockets of natural gas and oil that can be extracted through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. It's led to some pretty big deals with some pretty big prices, most notably BHP Billiton Ltd.'s purchase of Petrohawk Energy Corp. for $15 billion -- a 65% premium. The majors are bolstering their positions. Exxon Mobil Corp. purchased Marcellus Shale explorers TWP Inc. and affiliate Phillips Resources Inc. for $1.7 billion; ConocoPhillips Co. bought 46,000 net acres of leasehold in the Niobrara Shale from Lario Oil & Gas Co. for an undisclosed sum; and Chevron Corp. bought properties in the Marcellus from Enerplus Corp., Chief Oil & Gas LLC and Tug Hill Inc. for $1.8 billion on top of its $4.3 billion purchase of Atlas Energy Inc. In the third quarter, shale plays represented almost half the total oil and gas deal value as companies sought to gain "technology know-how and diversify service offerings," says Rick Roberge, a principal in PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's energy M&A practice. Following the Chinese, the Japanese are piling in. Itochu Corp. is participating in the $7.2 billion buyout of Samson Investment Co. with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP, Natural Gas Partners and Crestview Partners, while Inpex Corp. and JGC Corp. are buying 40% of Nexen Inc.'s shale properties in British Columbia for $700 million. And Mitsui & Co. Ltd., which was burned in the BP plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is thought to be Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s $3.4 billion sugar daddy in Ohio's Utica Shale after buying stakes in properties in South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale from SM Energy Co. in June for $750 million and in the Pennsylvania portion of the Marcellus Shale from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. last year for $1.4 billion. The U.S. is producing so much oil and gas that it should become a net petroleum product exporter this year -- the first time in 60 years. Shale gas, which made up 27% of U.S. natural gas production last year, is now at 34% and expected to reach 43% by 2015 and 60% by 2035, according to IHS Inc. And while it remains the early days of pulling oil out of shale, estimates suggest there might be as much as 20 billion barrels of recoverable tight oil just in the U.S. "That is like adding 1-1/2 brand-new Alaska North Slopes, without having to go to work in the Arctic north and without having to build a huge new pipeline," Daniel Yergin writes in his new book, "The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World." "Such reserves could potentially be reaching two million barrels per day of additional production in the U.S. by 2020 that was not even anticipated even half a decade ago." The advent of shale is creating a boom, from the equipment and technology needed to get oil and gas out of the ground to ancillary services -- water, chemicals, housing and people -- to storage, processing and transportation. That drove Superior Energy Services Inc.'s $2.7 billion deal for Complete Production Services Inc., Kinder Morgan Inc.'s $37.8 billion acquisition of El Paso Corp. and Crestview-backed Select Energy Services' rollup of water companies. While private equity has become entrenched in shale, some firms are instead investing in conventional natural gas, such as TPG Capital's $1 billion commitment to Maverick American Natural Gas LLC. Denham Capital Management LLP, whose Ursa Resources Group LLC sold its properties in the Bakken Shale, is now backing Ursa management's forays into conventional oil and natural gas. Maybe their investments have reached the end of their life cycle. Maybe they fear stronger regulation after cries from environmentalists. Or maybe they're just getting out while the getting's good. Read more: Shale game - The Deal Pipeline (SAMPLE CONTENT: NEED AN ID?) http://www.thedeal.com/magazine/ID/043314/features/shale-game.php#ixzz1g9EMHWd9

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/09/chart-of-the-week-the-scale-of-shale/#axzz1g9DUd5hA High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/09/chart-of-the-week-the-scale-of-shale/#ixzz1g9E0OKwC This week PetroChina discovered shale gas in China’s Sichuan province. How significant is this find for China’s energy supply and how does it compare to shale and natural gas reserves in other countries? Chart of the week takes a look behind the figures to get a better idea. Let’s leave aside the costs of extraction. Not all gas reserves are created equal. And we will also avoid the debate on fracking – which is controversial to say the least, and may be banned in several countries. Purely on a reserves basis, how big a deal is shale gas in China? Well, it’s the country with the largest technically recoverable shale gas reserves in the world and, of course, is the country with the largest energy consumption (in absolute terms, that is – in per capita terms China is still way behind the US). (* UPDATE: this paragraph has been changed. See below for correction details). So shale could be a big source of energy for China. But how does it compare to natural gas reserves? The chart below shows the countries with the largest shale gas resources, compared to their natural gas reserves, with the top four natural gas producers included for comparison. Russia has the most natural gas in the world – nearly a quarter of the world’s reserves, in fact. But China’s shale gas would put it between Russia and Iran, the country with the second-highest reserves. Shale could be very big. In fact, shale could be big for lots of countries – the shale reserves of the US, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Canada and Libya are all potentially bigger than the fourth-biggest country for natural gas, Saudi Arabia. Shale is also a big deal for these countries compared to natural gas. For countries with shale gas resources, only the Netherlands and Venezuela have bigger natural gas reserves than shale. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves according to some estimates, so shale is a distant third to oil and natural gas anyway. But for many emerging markets – China, Argentina, Mexico and South Africa especially – the scale of the shale reserves is, potentially, a game changer. If you can extract it. Reserves vs Resources Sources: EIA, CIA World Factbook * The original version of this post said that the shale gas reserves were proven – this was incorrect, it should have said technically recoverable, as per the EIA website. For a full explanation, see the paragraph “Technically Recoverable Resource” on the EIA website. The chart was also changed to reflect this. Related reading: PetroChina finds shale gas reserves, FT Malaysia: Petronas strikes $1.1bn shale gas deal in Canada, beyondbrics Shale reserves: Gas seen as bridge between old and new forms of power, FT

Anyone involved in long-term grid planning should prepare for lots of natural gas generation. And perhaps for less renewables than expected. Coal has long been the leading fuel for generating electricity, but that will change by 2025, according to forecasts from Exxon Mobil as reported in the Wall Street Journal. The study forecasts that coal will continue to grow (primarily in China and India) but that natural gas will grow even faster. Smart grid, smart grid renewables, electric utilities, natural gas, energy resources, Exxon Mobil The discovery of major reserves and the drop in natural gas prices is also affecting thoughts about renewable energy. Natural gas is cleaner that other fossil fuels and, these days, it is quite inexpensive, making it harder for renewables to compete on cost. Natural gas is more "grid-friendly" than renewables, which require a smarter grid to deal with their constant fluctuations. Right on cue, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie approved an "energy master plan" for the state that reduces the use of solar and wind in favor of natural gas (and nuclear). A 2008 plan called for 30% renewables by 2020. The new plan scales that back to 22.4%. 1 Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com. He consults to smart grid companies seeking market entry advice and M&A advisory. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the US and abroad, he also serves on the Advisory Council of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Energy & Environment directorate.

A California real estate services company is joining a coal-to-gasoline project in West Virginia's southern coalfields. Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis will help the developer, TransGas Development Systems, negotiate contracts and raise money for the $3 billion project. TransGas President Adam Victor announced CB Richard Ellis' participation in the project today at the fifth annual Governor's Energy Summit at Stonewall Resort. Victor says he expects financing for the project to be raised within 270 days. TransGas announced the project in 2008. The plant would convert 7,500 tons of coal per day into gasolin