Coal gasification plant will be built in upstate New York

Coal gasification plant will be built in upstate New York TransGas Development Systems said Tuesday it expects to begin construction early next year of one of the world’s largest coal gasification facilities in Scriba, just east of Oswego in upstate New York.
   The synthetic natural gas produced by the plant could be used by manufacturers, electric generation plants, home and commercial heating applications, automobile fueling or as an alternative to natural gas as an industrial process feedstock.
   The plant will also supply via existing pipelines gas for a proposed 1,100-megawatt TransGasEnergy cogeneration facility in Brooklyn,
   The estimated $2 billion plant will begin the permitting and site approval process later this summer and could be under construction early next year.
   When fully operational in late 2010, the TGDS plant will process up to an estimated 20,000 tons of coal per day. The coal will be brought to the plant via the CSX system in specially designed rail cars, which will be unloaded in a coal handling facility operated under a slight vacuum to insure that no coal dust escapes.
   TGDS is also working with the Port Authority of Oswego, which could receive large shipments of coal by freighter.