Coal To Fertiliser Trials A Success

The Age

Thursday November 27, 2008

Philip Hopkins

THE company behind the proposed $2 billion coal-to-fertiliser plant in the Latrobe Valley will push the project to detailed design stage after successful trials in Germany. Latrobe Fertilisers, a subsidiary of Australian Energy Company, aims to use low-emissions technology to produce nitrogen-rich fertiliser urea from Latrobe Valley brown coal.

Chairman Allan Blood said the detailed design stage would provide firm technical and financial information, with construction set to start in 2010.

He said the trials showed the viability of drying brown coal and then converting the coal into a high-hydrogen content synthesis gas suitable for making fertiliser, fuel or power. -- PHILIP HOPKINS

© 2008 The Age

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