Small-Scale LNG Plant to Supply Wyoming Coal Mine Haulers

On Friday, Alpha Natural Resources, one of the largest coal suppliers in the U.S., announced that Plum Energy will construct an LNG plant on property adjacent to Alpha Coal West’s Eagle Butte Mine, near Gillette, Wyoming. The Plum Energy facility will supply LNG to Alpha Coal West’s mine haul vehicles. Plum Energy’s LNG plant at the Eagle Butte Mine, scheduled to come online in March 2015, will be able to produce 28,500 gallons of LNG a day. In addition, Plum Energy has designed an LNG refueling station that will be constructed on-site at Eagle Butte, which will be capable of refueling eight trucks simultaneously. Alpha Coal West began testing LNG technologies developed by GFS Corp. in trucks at the Belle Ayr Mine in 2012. After 18 months of daily operation, Alpha Coal West decided to proceed with the conversion to LNG of its 16 Caterpillar 793 haul trucks at the nearby Eagle Butte
Mine. Alpha Coal West expects the alterations to the trucks, each of which is capable of hauling 240-tons of coal (the equivalent of two railroad cars) to be completed by the end of 2014. Alpha Coal West’s demand for LNG is expected to be about 6,400 gallons a day to fuel its trucks. As the plant grows, excess product can be sold to other companies in the area as they convert their haul trucks and other equipment to LNG.