The plant will be able to convert 4.3 million tons of coal into 385 million gallons of synthetic diesel fuel annually. American Clean Coal Fuels envisages 600 new full-time jobs to be created from the project, including 200 at the mine.
The company said the project will create clean and competitive new uses for plentiful high-sulfur Illinois coal by deploying new commercial technology.
American Clean Coal Fuels president Stephen Johnson told JG-TC Online that the company would now prepare the preliminary engineering and design work, title work, and surveying for the plant and coal mine.
The plant is expected to be ramped up in 2012, with coal extraction at the mine beginning prior to that.
