“From Underwood to the World!”
By Michael Johnson, Editor
When Mark Ness and Charlie Bullinger, principal engineers for Great River Energy, started working with various forms of drying processes at GRE’s Coal Creek Station in 1995, they never thought that their ideas and those of other engineers would turn into something with world-wide impact. But on June 3 at the dedication ceremony for the new DryFining™ coal enhancement technology, it became clear that people were paying attention to the innovations at hand. It started out with a barrel of coal in the test facility and is now about to go world-wide. Or, as Congressman Earl Pomeroy said, "From Underwood to the world!" Governor John Hoeven, Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan and Congressman Pomeroy all dropped in to address the guests at the Coal Creek Station’s maintenance garage and dedicate the new technology that was completed in December of 2009. The garage turned into a convention hall when a dozen businesses in technology development, engineering, industrial contracting and other companies from around the country came together to show off the latest in technologies as well as show the work that they put into the construction of the DryFining technology. Senator Kent Conrad summed up the impact of DryFining coal enhancement technology when he said, "This is a win-win-win situation."
