NextCoal International to build bio-coal plant in New York

NextCoal International, a US renewable energy company, is to build a Rural Economic Development Renewables Fuels Centre (REDRFC) in northern New York state to manufacture bio-coal for export to Japanese power plants.

The REDRFC will be supported by Japanese strategic and institutional investors.

Bio-coal is a coal substitute used for co-fired in coal-fired power plants for fuelling biopower plants. It is produced by a mild form of pyrolysis called torrefaction.

The REDRFC will also produce bio-oil for domestic industrial applications. The feedstock for both bio-coal and bio-oil is “sustainable woody biomass derived from responsible forestry operations,” NextCoal International said in a press release.

The REDRFC will be built on a site in rural Washington County, about 250 miles north of New York City. It is expected to create 30 direct jobs and create and support about 300 additional jobs in forestry, engineering, constructions, transportation and other fields.

Following the Washington County site, NextCoal will develop additional REDRFCs in several Atlantic and Pacific states in areas that board abundand supplies of sustainable woody biomass, the company said.