Cumberland Coal-to-Liquids Plant

On May 27, 2011, the Industrial Development Board for Cumberland, Morgan and Roane counties will hold a special meeting to discuss donating land for a $400 million Cumberland County coal-to-liquids plant in Tennessee. The board will consider giving 100 acres in the Plateau Partnership Park site near Interstate 40 and Westel Road to a Knoxville company - Freedom Energy Diesel LLC - that is proposing the facility. The company said the facility would use processes that will be 99.9 percent free of air pollution through coal-to-liquids technology - but did not provide details of how. Plateau Partnership Park board said it would proceed with the meeting now that it had received a letter of intent from Freedom Energy.

On June 13, 2011, the AP reported that Morristown had been chosen as the site for a new coal gasification plant that developers expected to be operational late 2012. Freedom Energy Diesel Chief Science Officer Eric Staton said the plant will use new plasma technology to create extremely high temperatures to turn coal into gas, which will then be converted to diesel fuel. The plant will be 570,000 square feet on 115-plus acres in the East Tennessee Progress Center near Interstate 81.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Tennessee and coal
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 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * US proposed coal plants (both active and cancelled)
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2007
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 * State-by-state guide to information on coal in the United States (or click on the map)