Gillette-based Clean Coal Technologies Inc., a coal processing technology company that has struggled for years to find a footing in a teetering coal market, has a new financial lifeline.
The business had tried to demonstrate its technology to dehydrate coal from the Powder River Basin into a cleaner burning, stable fuel for export markets, but racked up millions of dollars in debt.
A major investor in Clean Coal Technologies, Denver-based private equity firm Black Diamond Holdings, took the debt and converted it into stock in late October with one of its other portfolio businesses, NewStream Energy Technologies Group Inc., NewStream CEO Robin Eves told Cowboy State Daily.
This isn’t Black Diamond’s first rodeo in the energy tech field.
Among others, Black Diamond’s portfolio includes Rackwise Inc., a Folsom, California-based firm that tracks and adjusts power usage at large computer data centers, and Carbon Fuels LLC, a Denver-based firm that refines raw coal to produce liquid fuels, petrochemicals and clean power plant feedstock.
The completion of the Clean Coal Technologies merger has resulted in additional technologies being added to NewStream’s palette of companies.
Generally, NewStream owns and licenses energy generation technologies to provide cleaner, lower cost power and other byproducts, one of which is Clean Coal Technologies’ dehydrated coal for lower cost transport.
The technology behind Clean Coal Technologies was ready to go commercial in 2018, but after talking with the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources, which is a partner in the Gillette demonstration project, the business opted to take a few years to make the technology even more efficient.
UW Ties Still Intact
A NewStream filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late November says the company paid the University of Wyoming $1.3 million to buy a rotary kiln needed in the Clean Coal Technologies process to reduce the moisture in coal in a way that leaves the mineral stable and safe to handle.
Along with producing more energy than untreated coal, the refined coal product also produces fewer harmful emissions when burned, including carbon dioxide.
Eves told Cowboy State Daily that the UW partnership is still intact, but won’t grow unless NewStream can find a partner to export its coal product and build a larger factory to dehydrate the coal in Gillette.
Clean Coal Technologies had been testing its coal-dehydration technology at a demonstration plant at the AES Coal Power Utility in Oklahoma.
“We’re looking for a partner so that we can build a plant,” Eves said. “As of this moment, that is the plan. It depends on the partner, transportation, and the ability of (West Coast) ports to export.”
Export Is A Huge Hurdle
Eves acknowledged that the ability to ship the product overseas is a tough sell.
“This is because of the anti-coal sentiment from the U.S. It is a hard sell,” said Eves, noting that it is difficult to move the commodity through ports along the West Coast worried about coal dust and promoting the carbon footprint.
Exporting Wyoming coal has been a huge challenge for the state's leading industry as Oregon and Washington have blocked export terminals that could be a line to Asian markets for Wyoming coal.
The SEC filing outlined updates in NewStream’s business outlook.
The filing stated that Wyoming New Power Inc. — another Black Diamond-backed company — had agreed to sign a 2 million-ton annual license agreement to use NewStream’s proprietary process.
India’s Jindal Steel and Power Ltd., a steel company based in New Delhi, also has shown interest in establishing closer ties.
NewStream also entered into a partnership with UW with the sole focus of using NewStream’s suite of technologies to boost the use and value of Power River Basin coal, according to the filing.
The company disclosed last month that NewStream CFO Aiden Neary had resigned. His departure was not on account of a disagreement with NewStream, an SEC filing says.
For its nine-month period ended Sept. 30, the early-stage development company reported a loss of $7.3 million versus a loss of $2.1 million in the same period in 2022.
“There is still good demand for Powder River Basin coal,” Eves said. “If we find the right partner in the coal industry, we’d support a plant for Gillette — unless the owner of the coal mine wants it built somewhere else.”
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
