In Australia, Ignite Energy Resources has secured a $20M grant for the design, construction and operation of a lignite-upgrading plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.??The funding, part of the Advanced Lignite Demonstration Program , will allow Ignite to proceed with an $84 million project to demonstrate its unique Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor technology . The Project will involve the construction of a commercial-scale reactor module in an end-to-end pre-commercial plant, three phases over four years to 2018.
IER’s Cat-HTR technology upgrades lignite (brown coal) into synthetic crude oil and metallurgical-grade coal. Licella has developed a modifiication of the Cat-HTR platform to convert wet biomass into ‘BioCrude’ oil and high-value bio-chemicals.
The products will be tested by potential customers in order to gain commercial off-take agreements to enable the funding of expansion of the commercial scale reactors to commercial-scale plants.??The Project aligns with a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Ignite and Indonesia’s Bukit Asam last month. The MoU contemplates utilising Cat-HTR technology for integrated resource development projects in Indonesia and Australia.??Ignite has successfully converted samples of Bukit Asam’s 7.3 billion tonnes of low rank coal into syn-crude and upgraded coal at its existing Cat-HTR pilot facilities. Cat-HTR offers a viable solution to both countries increasing dependency on crude oil and petroleum imports. This appears to align well with the Indonesian Government’s directive to add more local value.
B Rubes
MNM Price at posting:
2.2¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held