Philippines to launch NanoPower Revolution

INQ7 in Manila is reporting that the Philippines Department of Energy is seeking "US technology to turn coal into gasoline," but energy officials in that country are not naming the company. I'm going to make an educated guess and say Headwaters Inc. or Air Products and Chemicals Inc. Since both of these are public companies, I should make it clear that I own stock in neither and have no personal interest in whether either one, or neither one, has the Philippines deal.

Here's an excerpt from the report:

THE DEPARTMENT of Energy is currently convincing a large American energy firm to bring to the Philippines its technology to convert coal into gasoline.

Energy officials said the technology would ease the country's dependence on imported crude and refined petroleum products.

Energy Undersecretary Peter Anthony Abaya revealed that negotiations were now ongoing with the American company, although there were still no firm commitments on whether the US firm would be investing in the country.

He declined to name the company, saying it would be more appropriate to do so once something concrete had been forged.

All he said was that the firm was involved in nanotechnology and coal-to-gasoline transformation. More here.

It is, by the way, fairly easy to point out the irony in the fact that the U.S. Department of Energy spent millions of dollars over a couple of decades to develop coal-to-liquid and gas-to-liquid technologies. Then, sometime in the late '90s, the DoE just simply dropped it, or made it less of a priority. That left a few U.S. companies with some great, half-finished R&D with nowhere to go. So, many companies found a better reception in China, India and Nigeria. Now, it looks like the Philippines will make gains, as well. Essentially, these countries are going to benefit from U.S. Department of Energy spending.

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