Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

OIL SHALE
the company. Earlier in 1994, CRSS signed a
non-binding
letter of intent to sell its holdings in
NaTec to AmerAlia Inc. for about $15 million.
AmerAlia says It wants to conclude that deal and
take control of NaTec.
NaTec's primary asset remains the interest
owned in the White River venture, and the com
pany says that existing
to be supplied.
AmerAlia Inc. traditionally
customers will continue
provides sodium bicar
bonate for use in the preparation of animal feed
mixes for dairy cows and other animals. But now
the Colorado Springs, Colorado, company will
pursue acid rain cleanup markets for the nah
colite product.
Natrona Resources
Natrona Resources Inc. of Glenwood Springs,
Colorado has awarded a design contract to
Raytheon Engineers and Constructors to build a
sodium bicarbonate and soda ash plant between
Meeker and Rangeiy in northwestern Colorado.
The contract, for an unspecified amount, is the
first stage of Natrona's plan to build the plant by
1996 to produce sodium bicarbonate and soda
ash in large volume by 1998. Natrona currently is
seeking financing for commercial development.
Natrona's property is adjacent to that owned by
NaTec Resources Inc.
Natrona and its partners-including Spelling Enter
tainment Group Inc.-were awarded three leases
7,151 acres in the Piceance Creek Basin
covering
in 1992. The area is thought to contain 3 billion
tons of nahcolite.
The Piceance Creek Basin contains an estimated
30 billion tons of nahcolite and is the only sub
stantial source of natural sodium bicarbonate in
the world. Because sodium bicarbonate can be
converted to sodium carbonate (soda
easily
2-8
ash), It is also recognized as the second-largest
deposit of sodium carbonate.
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ECONOMICS
LLNL FINDS ENHANCED ECONOMICS
POSSIBLE FOR SMALL-SCALE PLANT
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
has made economic projections for two different
sizes of oil shale retorting operations using the
LLNL HRS (Hot-Recycled-Solid) process. Some
results were presented by R. Cena at the 208th
American Chemical Society Meeting held in
Washington, D.C. in August.
One of the crucial challenges in beginning an oil
shale industry is how to overcome the high capi
tal cost and long lead time needed to make
process improvements which would enable shale
oil to compete as a fuel feed stock. LLNL has
chosen to focus on an initial plant that converts a
large fraction of its production into high-valued
specialty products to gain an initial market entry.
LLNL determined the economics for a plant
producing 10,000 barrels per day of oil from
shale. The plant converts the raw shale oil into a
slate of high-valued products including specialty
chemicals, a shale oil modified asphalt binder
and transportation fuels, while coproducing
electric power. According to Cena, this small-
scale venture appears to be competitive in
today's market with a 15 percent internal rate of
return on a capital investment of $725 million.
Once in operation, expansion to 50,000 barrels
per day has the potential to become economic
through economies-of-scale and cost reductions
based on operating experience and plant innova
tion. This small beginning would provide the
operating experience prerequisite for a larger in
dustry, if and when appropriate, that could
supply
transportation fuel needs.
a significant fraction of the U.S. liquid
THE SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995