Yes I did look it up, thanks.I am not sure of the total process...

Yes I did look it up, thanks.
I am not sure of the total process however most of my working life was with Lignite from testing samples prior to building Loy Yang to mining for Briquettes at best quality.
There is something new in the drying technique but I am not sure how this eliminates the production of CO2 which is a product of combustion if that is what we do.
The Japanese did all the early work of extraction of possible products at the Hazelwood North Plant and took all the results back to Japan with them them on completion of testing.
As far as I know we know how to produce Oil, Resins, Food Products, Fertilizers and who knows what else from Brown Coal.
HRL a division of SECV has done a lot of research since the 60's and were world leaders on Brown Coal research. I believe they perfected separation firing amongst other things.
ECT I believe is the spin off from HRL and has the benefit of the collapse of the SEC.
Just My Opinion of course.