Book Description

Within the context of Canada's future energy demand and declining conventional crude oil production, this report examines recent advances in coal liquids technology and assesses the potential role of coal-derived synthetic fuels in the evolving energy technology mix. The model used in this study allocates, on an optimal basis, all the relevant Canadian energy resources - conventional and frontier crude oil, natural gas, bitumen, and coal - among the potentially available technologies and also over time. The supply cost analysis, production and on-stream development scenarios presented for upgraders, mined oil sands plants and coal liquids facilities are based on a complete re-assessment of the potential costs of all of the major energy supply options, measured against a re-evaluation of the Institute's CREED model and a linear programming model developed by the Alberta Research Council. A detailed evaluation, undertaken by the MITRE Corp. in the U.S., of recent advances in direct coal liquefaction together with a study published by the Electric Power Research Institute on coal/oil co-processing, formed the basis of the state-of-the-art coal liquids technology.