Igniting efficient burn

Four hundred and fifty tons of New Zealand lignite has been successfully dried in a southwestern Dakota coal drying plant’s first commercial test of the process, which removed 65 per cent of water from the low-quality lignite, allowing it to burn cleaner and produce more than 4 per cent additional energy. The New Zealand lignite was shipped in December last year to the North Dakota plant, where it was dried into chunks the size of barbecue briquettes using a process called benefication. About 2 tons of the dried lignite was tested successfully at a coal-fired power plant in North Dakota, chief executive officer of GTL Energy USA Ltd Robert French said. French said a plant using GTL Energy’s benefication technology may be built in New Zealand.