University of Texas at Arlington researchers court energy investors

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After researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington successfully made a cheap crude oil substitute from biofuels, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton approached them with a different challenge: Make an affordable crude oil substitute from lignite — an inexpensive form of coal abundant in Texas.

So Rick Billo and his research team at UTA’s Center for Renewable Energy and Science Technology began developing and refining a chemical process to turn lignite into a liquid similar to crude oil.

It took Billo’s team about 16 months to develop a process that it claims will produce a synthetic crude oil substitute for half the price of West Texas Intermediate crude.

Now, the research team aims to take the process from the laboratory to the field by courting investors to build a $5 million microrefinery with the capacity to produce 1,000 barrels of synthetic crude a day.

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