Japan plans to provide Asian nations, particularly China, with the technology to liquefy coal as part of a broader effort to reduce global dependence on crude oil, a report said Saturday. In coal liquefaction, petroleum fuels such as gasoline and kerosene are produced from powdered coal by applying heat and pressure.
The industry ministry intends to tap proprietary technologies of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), an independent administrative agency under its control, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
As a first step, NEDO will join with Chinese energy companies Datang International Power Generation Co. and Xinwen Mining Group to conduct feasibility tests to determine how efficiently they can liquefy coal, the newspaper said, without citing sources.
The two Chinese firms plan to start operating a liquefaction plant by around 2010, the Nihon Keizai said.
Japanese engineering firms are expected to participate in the large project, for which construction costs are estimated at 100 billion yen (877 million dollars), the newspaper said.
Japan has also entered talks with the Indonesian government over coal liquefaction projects, it said.
Japan was also considering cooperating with India, Mongolia and the Philippines in this field, it said.
