A New future for coal
Modern researchers are achieving breakthroughs in harnessing the carbon in coal to create advanced carbon products and materials such as carbon fiber, graphene, graphite, and more. Using coal as a lower cost feedstock, the price of these materials is dramatically lowered as compared to a petroleum feedstock.
Our Ramaco Carbon division is focused on developing research and intellectual property related to these “coal-to-products” applications, working with national laboratories and operating a unique mine-mouth research facility in Wyoming.
Because as we say: “Coal is too valuable to burn.”
High Level partnerships
We have teamed with researchers at the Department of Energy’s top national laboratories and universities to support the development of both a new “coal-to-products” industry and critical mineral research. We also organize the nation’s leading international research conference on these subjects.
investment in innovation
We’ve privately invested over the past ten years to create an ecosystem of innovation in Wyoming, in a sector that represents one of the state’s biggest opportunities for job creation. Ramaco is leading the way in the industry’s research, development, and manufacturing of advanced carbon products and materials, and holds over 58 patents and patents pending for coal-to-products intellectual property.
developing to scale
We are the nation’s leading private supporter of efforts to commercialize research in the realm of “coal-to-products” and bring these unique products to market. By doing so, we are unlocking the potential to create an alternative, positive and disruptive future use for this abundant natural resource.
Building the carbon valley™
Carbon is becoming the dominant “advanced material” of the 21st century – think carbon fiber, graphene, graphite and carbon-based resins. The problem for their widespread use is that these materials are often expensive, because they are made from higher cost petroleum. Although petroleum and coal have roughly the same amount of carbon — about 75 percent — a ton of petroleum is about $500. A ton of coal from the Powder River Basin costs less than $15.
If we can harness coal to create advanced carbon materials for lower costs, it could be vastly disruptive across many industries, including aerospace and battery manufacturing, as well as cutting-edge defense applications.
Decades ago, forward-thinking technical talent and investors collaborated to build a wellspring of innovation named “Silicon Valley.” Ramaco is bringing that entrepreneurial spirit to Wyoming with our iCAM research campus, as well as to other prime coal-producing regions, building a new forward-thinking and vital economic driver for our economy.
Ramaco’s carbon and critical minerals research work “represents the leading edge of what could be a new, high-value market for coal after decades of being America’s cheapest power source.”
r3 Research conference
Bringing together top material scientists and researchers from around the world, our annual Ramaco Research Rodeo conference serves as touchstone in this important field of research. Our 2023 event conference was organized in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Carbon — a technology collaboration program of the International Energy Agency — and focused on carbon innovation’s role in the emerging global energy transition.
To learn more about our past events, including pictures, agendas, attendees, and programs, click the link below.
