A renewable energy renaissance in the heart of coal country

A successful Wefunder campaign that has already raised more than US$1.2 million is just the first step in Firepoint Energy Inc. CEO Bill Smith’s plan to clean abandoned mining sites while producing renewable energy and recovering rare earth minerals.

Smith’s exploration of multi-million-ton waste coal piles throughout Pennsylvania revealed that several of the piles were teeming with rare earth elements, several of which are now listed by the US Department of Defence as being vital to national security operations.

“There are so many ongoing efforts to find stockpiles of rare earth elements, but very few people were talking about waste coal, which is already sitting in plain view, and which already contains sizable amounts of these necessary minerals,” said Smith.

Smith and Firepoint Energy subsequently acquired the rights to a site in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, within the historical coal mining region known as Tunnelton. The location formerly served as the base of operations for the Tunnelton Mining Company, and Smith feels it is symbolically ideal for implementing the waste-coal-to-energy strategy.

“This site got its start when the industry as a whole was less concerned with its byproducts and the environmental consequences,” said Smith. “We have acquired a foothold in the heart of a region that is deeply linked with the origins of coal mining, and we can use our site to begin the clean-energy renaissance in a way that displays the viability of renewable solutions.”

Aside from Firepoint Energy’s plan to extract lithium and salt from the brine wastewater located at the site, the company’s strategy leans heavily upon the use of plasma gasification. By gasifying the coal presently resting upon the Saltsburg property, Smith expects to eliminate 500 t of waste coal from the property every single day by transforming it into sustainable aviation fuel.

“First the waste coal is gasified into a synthetic gas, and then funneled into a gas-to-liquids system,” explained Smith. “It only takes a subtle rearrangement of the molecules to complete the transformation of the waste coal into SAF, which is a product that the airlines are desperately craving.”

Smith added that the gasification method can also be tailored to leave behind rare earth elements, like holmium, terbium, and dysprosium, which are all in high demand within the medical, automotive, and defence sectors.

It is a process that Firepoint Energy COO and president, Shelly Befumo, views as the ideal remedy to the problems created by unsightly waste coal.

"Our approach provides a permanent solution to the problem of coal pollution while also addressing the needs of multiple industries seeking sustainable energy, renewable fuel, and critical minerals," said Befumo. "Worthless coal waste is removed from the environment and replaced with products of immense value."

However, Smith doesn’t see the application of Firepoint Energy’s remedy as being limited to waste coal, especially with the Trump administration widening its search for more solutions that capitalise on the promise of clean coal.

“Even when it comes to ordinary coal, the only way to have truly clean coal is to gasify it,” proposed Smith. “That’s the only way to unlock all of its energy potential while completely eliminating the harmful emissions from the equation.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/06022025/a-renewable-energy-renaissance-in-the-heart-of-coal-country/