Celanese Says Ethanol-From-Coal Process Is a ‘Game-Changer’ - Bloomberg [View All]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-10/celanese-says-ethanol-from-coal-process-is-a-game-changer-1-.html

Celanese Corp. (CE) said its technology to make ethanol from coal is more profitable than producing the gasoline additive from plants, and is a “game-changer” for the U.S. chemicals company.

Celanese’s so-called TCX technology can convert coal, petroleum coke or natural gas to ethanol for 25 percent to 35 percent less than alternative processes, it said today in presentation slides posted on its website. The cost of converting coal to ethanol is $1.50 a gallon, equal to making gasoline from crude oil costing $60 a barrel, Dallas-based Celanese said.

~~
~~

Celanese said in November it will spend as much as $350 million on each of two planned factories in China that will turn coal into ethanol for industrial uses. Each plant will have an annual production capacity of 400,000 tons of ethanol, or 134 million gallons. The company plans to sell ethanol in China, India, Australia, Colombia and Egypt.

Celanese rose $2.07, or 4.2 percent, to $51.98 as of 11:04 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
(more)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Given the supply of natural gas and coal in the U.S. this would mean substituting ethanol for all the gasoline we use is quite do-able.