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Lima Energy Working Out Construction Plans

Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Aug. 12--LIMA -- There's a construction trailer on the site of the proposed Lima Energy plant on South Main Street, but there's still a long way to go before the dirt starts flying.

The $600 million power plant, in the works since 1997, is in the home stretch for actual construction to begin, though, said Dwight Lockwood, vice president of regulatory affairs for Global Energy, Lima Energy's parent company.

"The trailer means we're getting there," Lockwood said.

The trailer was set up by Roberts & Schaefer, a Chicago firm that Global has hired as its general contractor. That company is tweaking a pair of bid packages, one for the foundation of the first building at the site, and one for the building itself, Lockwood said.

The bids have been opened, and there were some suggestions that are being incorporated, Lockwood said. Once the plans are done, they'll be submitted to Lima for review; then construction can begin, he said.

"Based on those (bids), we're reworking the drawings just a little bit to improve them and reflect some suggestions and some ideas that came out of that process," Lockwood said. He said it could be early September before the city gets the plans to review, but he hopes it'll be late August.

The first building will be a holding building for the coal that will be brought in by train and gasified into a synthetic gas to drive power turbines. Global wants to get started on construction of the foundation for that building even before its final financing package comes through, which may not happen until the end of the year, Lockwood said.

"It's a hard sell," he said of the financing, which has been in the works for several years. "We're aiming at later in the year."

Construction of the plant is expected to take 30 months. The plant will convert coal and petroleum coke into a synthetic gas, which, when compressed, burns as hot as natural gas. That will be used to power electricity turbines, and could also be sold as fuel itself. Other byproducts of the process, including pure sulfur and an inert glassy-like substance, can also be sold for different applications.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Lima News, Ohio

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Source: The Lima News

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