A research center at the University of Kentucky will get $2 million to study technology to turn coal into liquid transportation fuel, two Kentucky congressmen have announced.

The grant will go to UK's Center for Applied Energy Research, according to a news release from Republican U.S. Reps. Harold "Hal" Rogers of Somerset and Geoff Davis of Fort Mitchell.

The two Republicans got the money for the center into the federal budget signed by President Obama this week, according to the release.

The money will allow the center to expand on existing research by building a small-scale refinery, Rogers and Davis said.