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 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 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 annually.
investment in innovation
We’ve privately invested for over a decade to create an ecosystem of innovation in Wyoming that we call Carbon Valley, 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 70 patents and patents pending for coal-to-products intellectual property.
developing to scale
We are one of the nation’s leading private supporters of efforts to commercialize “coal-to-products” research 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 biggest obstacle for their widespread use is that these materials are often expensive. This is 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 the building blocks of 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 in 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 the iPARK campus outside Sheridan — which features our innovative iCAM research facility — the Brook Mine, and a future manufacturing facility. Here and in other prime coal-producing regions, we are working with partners to build Carbon Valley into a vital new 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 (R3) conference serves as a touchstone in this important field of research. In recent years, the conference has been organized in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Carbon, a technology collaboration programme of the International Energy Agency.
To find more information about R3, click the link below.