Valley City, N.D. (KCND) - Valley City State University wants to issue $22.5 million in revenue bonds to build a new integrated carbon plant - with an eye toward selling a by-product.
The plant would use lignite coal. It would capture the carbon, turn it into “activated carbon,” and sell it - using that money to pay off the bond.
"The activated carbon plant produces activated carbon, it doesn't use carbon as a fuel," Director of Facilities Planning for the North Dakota University System Rick Tonder says, "and so, the goal here is to pull carbon away from lignite as a fuel source using only the natural gas. And then sell the carbon as a cleaning product and for other uses such as carbon fiber production"
VCSU president Tisa Mason says one example of “activated carbon” use is in home water purifiers.
The University would partner with the Energy and Environmental Research center at UND to build the plant.
A bill allowing VCSU to do this is pending in the North Dakota Legislature.