There has been a lot of news about coal this week, and none of it has been particularly good news for coal companies...
From the deadly mine disaster in West Virginia all the way to Australia's Great Barrier Reef — where a coal ship ran aground, spilling untold amounts of oil into the sea — coal's damaging human and environmental effects have been laid bare.
Add to that the passage of the EPA's tight new rules regulating the controversial mountaintop coal mining procedure, and the coal industry is officially reeling.
BioCoal Pellets |
But one energy investment company is predicting record profits with a clean take on coal. 4Energy Invest manufactures bio-coal, which is CO2 neutral. BioCoal is similar to charcoal, but it is created using biomass harvested from dead trees and shrubbery.
The biomass is put through a process called torrefaction, where it is packed and heated at temperatures reaching 300 degrees Fahrenheit, producing higher quality fuel than the biomass alone.
The end result is a clean, green coal substitute that equals the energy density of coal used in traditional power plants.
"You cut the tree to make the bio-coal, you replant it, and basically you don't increase the volume of CO2, that's the reason why the bio-coal is CO2 neutral," 4Energy Chief Executive Yves Crits told Reuters.
As the case against traditional coal has coalesced, the demand for the CO2-neutral fuel has grown considerably. This growing demand may boost 4Energy revenues up to ten-fold within the next four years, Crits predicts. He already expects a 10% earnings bump for the second half of this year.
The company has been active since 2005, when they began producing energy for the wood industry in Amel, Belgium. They moved on to become one of the pioneers of bio-coal, which has precipitated their recent economic success and propelled the company into a serious international player. They've just opened offices in Brazil and are planning to add additional offices in Belgium, Germany, and the UK.
4Energy is the quintessential clean-energy success story. They have set themselves up to prosper in the coming years — and they won't have to endanger miners, destroy the environment, or blow mountains to smithereens in order to do it.
Be Well,
Jimmy
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