A few posts from a former fort Union Employee:
Kfuel Storage problems
Briefly here is what would happen. From my observation the product going in the silo had a shelf life of about two weeks. If the product had not been moved at that time hot spots would begin to develop in the silo. Sometimes water would be sprayed on the product in the silo, but with little long term effect. It cooled it down for a day or two, but sooner or later the hot spots would return. (Perhaps you are not aware, but coal actually absorbs heat when it is sprayed with water, an endothermic reaction.) Usually when hot spots developed the procedure was to remove about 300 tons of product from the silo with the idea of collapsing the hotspot. Again, this would work for a few days, but it was almost guaranteed once the product in the silo began to combust little could be done about it and the tonnage that went back to the mine pit would probably astound you. The hot coal removed from the silo would be buried in the mine. Not really a safety issue there, but it was almost embarassing to have made the product and then turn around and put it back in the mine a couple weeks later. Hope that answers your question.
Kfuel water byproduct is a mess/nightmare
One of the unsolved problems at the Ft. Union plant was what to do with all that damn water squeezed from the coal. The coal from the Ft. Union mine was in the 25-33 percent moisture range. The process reduced that moisture to about 10%, a reduction of 20%. 20% of a ton of coal comes out to be about 48 gallons of water for every ton of coal processed. Add the water from washdown, drainage, etc and one can come up with a nice figure of 50 gallons of water to dispose of for every ton of coal processed. (Okay, so how much water boys and girls must be dealt with at this new and improved facility that will produce 1.5 million tons per year?) The water treatment plant at Ft. Union was a complete disaster. When I first began working there the water was treated by a system called VSEP. Through no fault of their own, the designers of the Ft. Union plant had no idea the water produced from the process would be laden with coal fines, almost to the point of being called a slurry. The suspended solids in the process water overwhelmed the VSEP system to the point of making it useless. That million dollar system was idled and a hodge-podge mess of tanks, pumps and stuff was thrown together to accomplish a makeshift water treatment plant. It worked, after a fashion, but could not keep up with the water being produced if the plant was operating with any consistency. On more than one occasion the plant would have to be slowed down and sometimes even stopped so the water treatment plant could catch up. In January 2007 then VP of Engineering, Dennis Coolidge, spent a couple hours with the crew I was assigned to one morning, briefing us on what changes were being considered and worked on. He was rather revved up because a new water treatment facility was going to be built later that spring. It was even going to be in an enclosed building so the damn thing didn't freeze up when the weather turned cold, something the design people didn't take into account when building Ft. Union. April 2007 came and Mr. Coolidge was shuffled off, I don't know why. About that time parts and pieces of the new water treatment plant began arriving. Weird though, summer came and went, as did autumn, but no water treatment plant was built. To this day there are still pieces for the new water treatment facility laying at the Ft. Union site providing a shelter for cottontail bunnies and collecting rust. Somewhere along the line a decision was made not to build the water treatment plant and not to attempt to solve that problem. This is one of a half dozen reasons why I begin to wonder if the corporate board of EEE was ever interested in solving the problems incurred at the Ft. Union site. (Remember, I am liar and never worked for EEE.)
K-fuel is not economically viable
Obviously one individual is not a company policy, however, when talking with a management type chap who has been at Black Hills Corp., (my current employer), for more than twenty years he said that BHC did a feasibility study on enhanced/dried coal and concluded it was not economically viable for them. In fact, the BHC generating complex at Gillette, test burned K-fuel, but chose NOT to pursue it because they would have had to make major modifications of their boilers. There was also that little insignificant problem of the Ft. Union plant operating long enough at any particular time to actually produce enough product to stockpile and burn. If BHC was interested in EEE it seems logical that some sort of workable joint venture would have already been accomplished.
Why don't you EEE advocates ask the corporate board for the production numbers for the two years the plant was in operation? Golly, if the Ft. Union plant was the future of the clean coal industry one would think that EEE would be more than happy to brag about the production that occurred. Unfortunately they can't do that, because little production occurred. Now they have to talk about production at some nebulous plant located somewhere perhaps being built sometime in the future.
Deserves To Fail
After working at EEE for almost two years it is my conclusion this was mostly a grandiose scam from the outset. (Either that or EEE has an extremely gifted management when it comes to ignorance and incompetency.) The press releases from the corporate folks since idling the Ft. Union plant have been laden with falshehoods and they know it, the greatest of which is that the plant at Ft. Union was never intended to be a production facility and has served its purpose as an R & D plant. When lies are knowingly disseminated by EEE to the public it would indicate to me a corporation that has no justification for its existence.
Technical Analysis
LINK
A former Fort Union Employee speaks
Twelve Good Reasons to Never Buy EEE stock
by: shortsided
1. Evergreen has a bill coming due that will drain their cash reserves and most likely force the sale or loss of assets, including the Buckeye coal mine.
2. There has been a delay by Congress in rewriting the nation’s coal emission laws. Evergreen is counting on those laws being rewritten to tell you it is only a matter of time before K-Fuel, C-Lock or what ever else they dream up is needed. If you want to gamble go to Biloxi.
3. Evergreen has learned a lot during the past couple years, test processing about 25 types of coal and lignite from all over the world. And they discovered 'Producing K-Fuel was not economically feasible' so they shut down their only plant and wrote off $200 MILLION DOLLARS of SHAREHOLDER WORTH.
4. Despite numerous independent test burns have confirming that K-fuel performs as advertised and trying to sell it below cost, no one was willing to sign a long term contract with the company.
5. World wide environmental regulations are tightening, and there are VAST amounts of coal still in the ground so there will no need to process and burn the lower grade dirt for years to come if ever.
6. Evergreen has learned that the nation’s railroads have serious limitations, and good product transportation is critical to success. Most companies already knew this. Evergreen also learned you have to plan shipments more than week in advance and the railroads don't like it when train cars burst into flames.
7. Gillette was a good place to source PRB coal, but the Wyoming winters tend to be extreme, resulting in a sky high golf handicap.
8. With Bechtel at their side, Evergreen learned a lot of important lessons about how to build a refinery and it only cost $200 million to discover you should hire real engineers to design a coal processing plant.
9. You would think higher coal prices would be good for Evergreen until it dawns on you that all the users pay the same for coal unless they have signed delivery contracts, but in any case the voal costs are passed along to their customers.
10. The company has never met one single goal ever.
11. Company Management Lies.
12. See Number 11. That should be reason enough for anyone.
Another competitor that is far ahead of EEE
"Clean coal processor plans Cincinnati facility on the Ohio River"
A British company that designs coal-cleaning plants has announced plans to build it first U.S. facility in Cincinnati.
Vertus Technologies is a subsidiary of London-based Nviro Cleantech. It has signed a 25-year contract with Cincinnati Bulk Terminals to install and operate a plant along the Ohio River.
The company says the facility will remove pollutants such as sulfur and mercury from coal before it is burned.
The company says the project will cost $3 million (€1.93 million) to $5 million (€3.22 million) and will be able to process 100,000 tons of coal a year.
Is C-Lock just another scam by this (very) Questionable Company: Evergreen Energy?
Why I Believe C-Lock Will Not Make Any Money
Is GreenCert Certified to Certify Anything?
Is C-Lock/GreenCert seeking ISO accredidation?
Evergreen Energy - The Legacy
Evergreen Energy - The Legacy
SEC Settles "MARKING THE CLOSE" Manipulation Case Against John P. Venners
Clean Coal Breakthrough or Scam?
Attorney General's Involvement in Taiwan Deal Goes Deep
Smoking Out the Truth
Another One Bites the Coal Dust
NakedShorts: Feds not buying Marquez's woes
Evergreen Energy: It helps to tell you less
Evergreen Energy: "It helps to tell you less"
"Evergreen Energy was trading above $20 two years ago. That was so long ago - it now struggles to stay above $2."http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com
"Closure doesn't help coal ambitions"
EEE's Not Even Sure K-Fuel is Viable - 10K Statement
While our Fort Union plant previously produced limited amounts of K-Fuel refined coal, we do not know whether K-Fuel refined coal can be produced and sold on a commercial basis in a cost effective manner after taking into account the cost of the feedstock, our production costs and the cost of transportation. As our Fort Union plant was not able to achieve full scale commercial production, we have not yet developed an efficient cost structure.
EEE in 3 Words; Scam, Scam, Scam
Clean Coal Breakthrough or Scam?
(after 4 years from the date of this article it is evident that we are looking at a legitimate scam.)"This has been Venners' message for years."
South Heart project would dry water from coal
"Great Northern Power Development plans to use yet another strategy to make its proposed coal project near South Heart more environmentally friendly.Great Northern and its partner, Allied Syngas, said Wednesday they will go to Australia for technology that essentially squeezes water from lignite coal."
Read more here
No Power Company Wants Kfuel
It is worthless to power companies. They are obviously smarter than those who think that Kfuel is viable and invest in it.
Scrubbers ordered for TVA plant linked to Great Smoky pollution
COAL: Scrubbers ordered for TVA plant linked to Great Smoky pollution (04/03/2008)
Daniel Cusick, E&ENews PM reporter
The Tennessee Valley Authority today authorized nearly $600 million in new spending on pollution controls for its John Sevier Fossil Plant in East Tennessee, a plant whose coal-fired emissions are considered a significant contributor to air quality problems in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Most of that investment will go toward the engineering and construction of a sulfur dioxide (SO2) scrubber and installation of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to curb nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
The TVA Board also heard recommendations from its staff on how it can reduce power consumption throughout its seven-state service territory while also improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming.
TVA officials said the John Sevier pollution control project, to completed in 2012, should reduce SO2 emissions from the 800-megawatt plant by as much as 95 percent, while NOx emissions will drop by more than 90 percent.
The Sevier plant in Rogersville, Tenn., is the easternmost fossil plant in TVA's system and one of three coal-fired plants whose emissions contribute to air quality problems at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
With the addition of a scrubber and SCR at Sevier, TVA will have controlled for SO2 and NOx at all three of its East Tennessee coal plants. Improved pollution controls are in the process of being installed at the Bull Run Fossil Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Kingston Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tenn.
"The air in East Tennessee and the rest of the Tennessee Valley is improving as TVA continues to carry out one of the most aggressive clean-air programs in the country," TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said in a statement.
TVA officials said that since 1977, the federally owned utility has spent $4.8 billion on emission controls and other air quality programs, and it expects to spend an additional $3 billion to $4 billion in the coming years.
Yet despite that sizable investment, roughly half of TVA's coal-fired plants continue to operate without the most advanced pollution controls.
Of TVA's 59 coal-fired generation units, only seven are currently equipped with SO2 scrubbers. With the addition of SO2 controls at the three East Tennessee plants, that number of scrubbed units will grow to 11.
Nevertheless, Kilgore touted TVA's air quality accomplishments, noting that systemwide SO2 emissions have dropped by more than 80 percent since 1977, while NOx emissions during the summer ozone season have dropped by more than 80 percent since 1995.
Options for energy efficiency, renewables
The TVA Board also received drafts of the utility's latest "Energy Efficiency and Demand Response Plan," its "Clean Energy Assessment" and an environmental policy document prepared by TVA staff.
The utility has set a goal of reducing growth in peak electricity demand by up to 1,400 megawatts by 2013, roughly the amount of electricity generated by a large nuclear plant. Much of the demand reduction is expected to come through new energy efficiency programs targeted at residential, commercial and industrial customers.
TVA staff also have also recommended adding more renewable energy resources to the utility's generation portfolio while also looking for ways "to reduce carbon emissions in the valley environment while minimizing costs and maintaining a reliable power supply."
Currently, TVA's renewable energy portfolio includes 18 wind turbines atop Buffalo Mountain in East Tennessee capable of producing 29 megawatts of power, as well as smaller amounts of solar-, methane- and biomass-derived energy.
TVA customers can purchase renewable energy for 15 cents per kilowatt hour through the utility's Green Power Switch program.
Another Open Letter to Kevin Collins
Dear Mr. Collins,
How is that this accounting problem got by you for so long? Prior to being the CEO you were the Executive VP of Finance & Strategy as I recall. How is it that you didn't know that you had almost 50 million improperly designated as cash? When will you be coming forward with full disclosure on your accounting problems? Please be aware that I'm not going to let you just sweep this under the rug. I've already been in touch with a friend of mine who is a top notch forensic accountant. He has limited time right now but when he gets a chance to go over your books you can bet he will be picking them apart.
You now have $28 million in cash. How will you build a plant with so little? We already know it costs significantly more than that to build out a kfuel plant. If a new plant costs half as much to build as the Fort Union debacle you still don't have close to enough money to build a new one. So how will you get the money? With a secondary you will have to significantly dilute shares at the current share price. Will you use a PIPE or some other kind of toxic financing?
May I remind you sir that we live in a different day. The internet is an amazing thing. People can find out information about a person in your position in a matter of minutes. Your clumsy actions here will haunt you for the rest of your career. Your dirty laundry will be on display for years to come, possibly decades.
If there really is something to kfuel then I suggest you cut the charades and come clean. Otherwise, if kfuel is actually a hoax or not really a viable solution then I can understand why you don't have a choice but to continue to play games. From the outside looking in, that's what appears to be going on. You are trapped in a mess you cannot get out of. I'd say the market is agreeing with me on that, wouldn't you?
Author: osollo
Coal Kings Brother the certified Insane Criminal ?
The below article was originally written by Greg Newton who passed away on April 1, 2009. Mr. Newton was the author of the "Nakedshorts" blog at nakedshorts.typepad.com, which is no longer available. The Bayou Hedge Fund Group was a frequent subject of Mr. Newton's.
The following article was copied here in its entirety except that the link to the sentencing documents seems to be broken. We will trying to fix that later.
Feds not buying Marquez’s woes
Defense attorney says key document may be forgedFederal prosecutors aren’t interested in cutting admitted Bayou co-conspirator James G. Marquez a break when he’s sentenced. Dismissing defense claims that Marquez was a vulnerable victim of mental illness interested only in recouping losses hidden from Bayou investors, assistant US Attorney Margery B. Feinzig draws a compelling profile of a manipulative chancer, lining his pockets at the ultimate expense of Bayou investors long after he officially left the corrupt Scamford, Conn., hedge fund.
In a sentencing memorandum filed last week, Feinzig said that Marquez deserves a sentence of 51-60 months, rejecting defense suggestions that his jail time should be reduced because of “his history of mental illness, his devotion to his family, his charitable work” and other reasons.
But Marquez is not going quietly. His sentencing, set for Thursday, Oct 25, was deferred to Nov. 15 after defense attorney Bradley D. Simon alleged that a document rebutting a “a significant factual point in Mr Marquez’s sentencing submission,” filed Sep. 12, “was a forgery...made by or at the behest of one or more of the government’s main cooperators.”
Marquez’s own sentencing memorandum is not available online. At pixel-time, Simon had not returned a call seeking clarification as to which document was at issue amongst more than 250 pages, in 15 exhibits, accompanying the 66-page government filing.
Feinzig takes a hatchet to Marquez’s plaint, perhaps most devastatingly in an analysis of a rare, profitable, Bayou transaction [Emphasis added]:
The defense has attempted to paint a picture of Marquez as a vulnerable, passive, psychologically impaired individual who did not want to be a part of the fraud but was brow-beaten into it by Israel and Marino; who struggled to earn a living after he was kicked out of Bayou; and whose actions were unselfish and driven by a motivation to make money for Bayou investors.
As the record reflects, while he was at Bayou, Marquez had a reputation as a successful money manager whose stock views were sought after by business reporters and who was quoted in stock tip articles.
Even after being thrown out of Bayou, Marquez succeeded in persuading Israel and Marino to pay him consulting fees that paid him the same annual distribution he was earning at Bayou, a six figure separation fee, many of his new business start-up costs and other expenses, and his car payments. He also managed to convince Israel and Marino, despite the fact that Israel though he had poor investment judgment, to have Bayou purchase the energy stock he was recommending, KFX. That kind of record does not support the notion that Marquez was passive, vulnerable, or wracked by mental illness.
[KFX, the former KFX Inc, was recently renamed Evergreen Energy Inc (NYSE: EEE)].
Moreover the KFX transaction speaks volumes about Marquez’s motives, which appear to have been driven more by a desire to make money and conceal the fraud, than to selflessly pay back the Bayou investors. Dubbed by Marquez as the ‘Solution to Recoup Investor Losses,’ the KFX transaction was no selfless act to compensate victims. It was a stock tip, another trading gamble with other people’s money; it represented Marquez’s effort to hide the fraud; and it provided a tremendous financial boon to the Marquez family.
This time, the trading gamble paid off, although it took three years: in December 2004, Bayou sold its one million shares of KFX stock for approximately $16 million—an approximately $12 million profit that theoretically would have covered Marquez’s losses had it been realized years before; Marquez was off the hook in that he never had to pay Israel and Marino for his share of the losses out of his own pocket; it helped keep the Bayou fraud under wraps; and Marquez made millions of dollars in connection with the transaction and through his subsequent relationship with KFX.
The way Marquez came to obtain the KFX related money reflects his continued willingness to exploit the Bayou investors for his own profit. First...he received fees on both sides of that transaction as a ‘consultant’ to both parties. Next, Marquez obtained the potentially valuable warrants that were attached to Bayou’s stock and owned by Bayou for next-to-nothing. Then, once he came into possession of those warrants, KFX changed the terms by re-issuing the warrants with a longer holding period and a lower strike price. These changes allowed Marquez, eventually, to exercise the warrants and sell the stock at a profit of approximately $2,740,000. In addition to the profits that went into his pocket for that specific transaction, he forged a relationship with KFX that brought him more stock and provided him with annual consulting payments from KFX for years. In all, Marquez collected approximately $4.8 million in connection with his relationship with KFX. Thus the KFX transaction cannot be viewed as a selfless act to benefit the Bayou investors (17).
(17) The defense sentencing memo, including a letter submitted by Mrs Marquez, also leaves the impression that the Marquez’s have been struggling to make ends meet...the Marquez’s made a lot of money from Bayou and KFX from January of 2001 on. Additionally, they have been living in different neighborhoods in Greenwich for at least the last decade, their assets now including a home worth $1.9 million, a boat, cars, jewelry, securities and a trust fund, and they have been able to send their two children to an expensive private school.
US vs James G. Marquez
Government’s Memorandum In Connection With Sentencing
Oct. 16 2007
I am quite sure you know exactly who I am & my holdings in TMEN are VERY LARGE.
Again you are full of crap. TMEN is still a research company that could have a future someday?
I will make you & all the posters a deal .
The last four years I have tried to defend KFX & NOW EEE.
If Sexton lied & there are no deals in EEE by Years End, I will sell all of my shares in EEE & become a strong short.
Facts are EEE has the product & company is just getting started.DEALS are important & if SEXTON IS A LIAR I DON"T WANT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH EEE.
In the mean time we will continue to buy at these bargin price . IF SEXTON is proven to be a LIAR I AM GONE & SHORTS WILLHAVE NO RESISTANCE in THE FUTURE THEY CAN SIT HERE & LIE TO THE SHAREHOLDERS I WON'T BE HERE TO STOP THEM!
I am not a PHANTOM LIKE THE SHORTS LOTS OF INVESTORS KNOW ME & I TELL THE TRUTH.
