Revolutionary Coal Refining Process
Notes from Frontieras webinar last Friday 2/17/25
My notes from Frontieras North America (frontieras.com) webinar 2/17/25
This is a followup from my post Thursday 2/16/25 “Investing on the Edge” - will do an audio version if time permits. Some of my notes are from memory and often paraphrased; not exact quotes. If Frontieras is successful, it will change the whole energy picture globally. So far, I haven’t found a flaw in their plan, but please comment if you see any problems with this company or their vision. Help me with ‘due diligence’ as we need to do with any investment.
The process is refining coal rather than burning it. It needs no catalysts. It’s very efficient and has a high ROEI (Return On Energy Invested). It’s patented in several countries and more patents will be added. Frontieras has exclusive rights in US and Canada.
Planning to go public as quickly as possible, and to emphasize paying dividends to shareholders.
Water is not needed; it’s a byproduct.
There is no negative environmental impact and no toxic waste. Natural gas is used to get the refining process started, but then it is self sustaining and the only gas burned is for pilot lights.
There are no competitors.
$850M plant in engineering phase in West Virginia will be profitable 18 mos after starting. Will be built on old coal power plant property where there is already infrastructure for loading and handling coal. Will use about 7,500 tons of coal per day. (A trainload is 10-15,000 tons). Have supply agreements with 2 major companies.
FasCarbon production removes H2O from coal, making technical coal (coke) needed for steel making. Emissions from using FasCarbon will be about 50% less because less fuel needed.
The market is solid for all the products from this refining process: Coke, nat.gas, diesel, kerosene for jet fuel, hydrogen for fertilizer.
Lower oil prices won’t hurt the market for these products – there is little to no connection.
Coal power plants actually are very clean now with all the technical improvements, but coal plants still get negative publicity because of ignorance. This will change all that.
That is interesting. As Dave noted, the initial gut reaction is that it sounds too good to be true. I have seen many presentations at industry conferences that promise some new technology has solved all the problems that have stymied a lot of very smart people before. It is interesting, though, and I plan to dig deeper.
The presence of over 440 years of coal reserves (at current use levels) in the ground in the U.S. makes this sort of thing huge (if it works). Also, the sooner it can come online, the better because many coal mining operations stare closures in the eye as utilities shut down their coal-fired facilities. If a process like this can open up a new market, it could save mines. Getting new mines to open requires a lot of dollars.
My thoughts are it sounds too good to be true. Why wouldn’t a major player in energy buy them and fold it in to their operation?