A range of properties in Cheyenne and other Laramie County real estate are turning into clean-coal research facilities.  Driven by stimulus money and cleaner-energy technologies, the facilities promote green technologies for coal production, extracting gases and byproducts using pollutant-free processes. 

Most are partnerships with the University of Wyoming.  On May 8, 2009, Cheyenne LEADS announced a location in northwest Cheyenne real estate to build a $100-$120 million research center for coal gasification.  A partnership of the University of Wyoming and General Electric, the facility will employ 15 fulltime plant operators as well as researchers and customers such as General Electric and others.  Before 2013, construction of the Cheyenne property should be complete.

Although there is not a university located right in Cheyenne, the 35-acre parcel in the Cheyenne LEADS Business Parkway is accessible to the University of Wyoming in Laramie, University of Colorado at Boulder and other schools along the Front Range.  As these projects magnetize researchers and high-tech expertise, promoters also hope to increase the skill sets of the local workforce.  
The intent of the project in Cheyenne is to provide a cleaner burning process that will make “Wyoming coal viable for decades,” according to the Press Release from The Cheyenne-Laramie County Corporation for Economic Development (Cheyenne LEADS).  UW and GE researchers will “develop advanced coal gasification technology solutions for Powder River Basin (PRB) and other Wyoming coals.”

Funding for this project comes primarily from state and federal governments.  In 2010, the Clean Coal Task Force at UW’s School of Energy Resources distributed $7-$10 million of state resources to fund a wide range of other projects.  A portion went to test a process to capture carbon dioxide emitted from the Jim Bridger coal-fired plant near Rock Springs, another to research power plant cooling, solvents to capture carbon dioxide, and power plant emission monitoring equipment.

Federal stimulus money funded carbon sequestration projects at Rocks Springs Uplift and Moxa Arch, both in Wyoming.  Also at Western Research Institute at UW, Chart Energy and Chemicals collaborated with Synkera Technologies to separate hydrogen from coal-derived gas.  Linc Energy from Australia is also in Wyoming, aiming to develop sites to ‘cook’ coal underground to produce natural gas.

Rather than burning coal, gasifying it is efficient and allows for the capture of carbon dioxide, hopefully to balance its presence in the environment.

For information about real estate, ranches, and land in Laramie County, call The Property Exchange at (307) 632-6481.