Baard Energy

Baard Energy is a company that specialises in the "design, development and construction of a variety of energy projects including large natural gas powered electric generating facilities, ethanol production plants, biodiesel production plants, and coal-to-liquids projects which produce synthetic transportation fuels."

Ohio River Clean Fuels
Baard Energy is currently developing the 115 million gallon per year Floyd Valley Ethanol project in Hinton, Iowa and the 53,000 barrels per day Ohio River Clean Fuels coal and biomass to liquids project at Wellsville, Ohio.

Baard pulls out of DOE loan guarantee program for Ohio River Clean Fuels
On March 26, 2009, Baard announced that the company is no longer pursuing its application with the Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee Program for the Ohio River Clean Fuels project. CEO John Baardson stated that the Sierra Club and NRDC legal challenges would likely delay any DOE funding for years. Baardson said the company "did not think it was worthwhile to put at risk over a million dollars of non-refundable submission fees and associated costs to participate in any federal program that has this much uncertainty."

October 2010: Ohio plant construction plans move forward
In October 2010, Baard Energy said it looks to begin construction of its nearly $6 billion Ohio River Clean Fuels Project by late spring or early summer 2010. CEO John Baardson said the first phase of the plant will take three years. Investors in the coal and energy markets have committed $2.5 billion, which “is allowing us to purchase the land” and begin preparing it for construction, Baardson said. The announcement came on the heels of the Columbiana County Port Authority announcing its memorandum of understanding with Planck Trading LLC of Boca Raton, Florida, which will finance the purchase of 522 acres of property for the project. Planck will pay $5.1 million to acquire the property as well as a 2.5% fee of the purchase price to the port authority for the land. Baardson said the private financing "is a sign of things to come." The $2.5 billion will fund the land purchase and construction of the first phase of the project. The plant will use coal and other alternate feedstocks, such as waste wood, to produce an estimated 52,000 barrels daily of synfuel, as well as naphtha, by using the Fischer-Tropsch coal-to-gas synthesis process. Naphtha is a low-octane gasoline used as a feedstock in the chemical industry.

Switch to natural gas
In October 2011, Baard said it will use natural gas, rather than liquid coal, as its feedstock for the Ohio River Clean Fuels Project. The switch was part of a negotiated settlement with the State of Ohio amidst legal challenges by NRDC and Sierra Club over Baard's pollution permits.

The switch closes what would have been a new market for Ohio’s high-sulfur coal. Pursuant to the agreement, NRDC and Sierra Club will then move to dismiss their appeals once the permits are modified.

Personnel

 * John A. Baardson, CEO

Contact details
9013 NE HWY 99, Ste S Vancouver, WA 98665 Tel: 360-546-2342 Fax: 360-574-2795 Email: info AT baardenergy.com Website: http://www.baardenergy.com/

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Baard Clean Fuels
 * Baard Generation
 * Baard Power
 * Baard Renewables
 * Ohio River Clean Fuels
 * U.S. Air Force and Coal

External Articles

 * John A. Baardson (CEO, Baard Energy, "Coal to Liquids: Shell Coal Gasification with Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis: A Private Developers Perspective", 2005 Gasification Technologies Conference, October 11, 2005.