Europe - The European Union has proposed a new package of carbon and renewable energy targets for 2030 that could see the bloc impose a 40% carbon reduction target.

India - Coal Ministry has identified five lignite and two coal blocks, with estimated reserves of 950-million tons, that would be offered to private investors to undertake UCG projects.

United States - A new US Geological Survey study says that only a small percentage of coal in the Powder River Basin is cost-effective to mine in the current market. Project Chief for the US Coal Assessment Program, Jim Luppens, says the coal seams that are not technically mineable could potentially still be used for UCG.

Mongolia – UCG is a cleaner way to utilise Mongolia’s coal reserves to help meet the county’s growing demand for electricity.

India - The government has said it is keen to collaborate with the South African government on UCG projects. According to an official in India’s Coal Ministry the request for bilateral India-South Africa co-operation would be a follow-up to a new policy for UCG, which was likely to be announced shortly.

Hungary – A Memorandum of Understanding between WHE and E.ON “is the first big step in commercialising this technology in Europe – which could have a huge impact on the energy dynamic of the region due to the historic high dependence on Russian gas imports.”

Cluff Natural Resources has been awarded two UCG licences in the UK as part of its strategy to build a portfolio of assets in the natural resources sector. The company will receive 100% of the Loughor Estuary Project in Carmarthenshire, Wales, as well as all of the Dee Estuary Project, located on the borders of Merseyside and Northern Wales, covering a combined area of 111 hectares. Cluff Natural said these are the first of a series of projects it is looking to acquire. 

Linc Energy has signed a deal with DTEK Oil and Gasto jointly evaluate potential UCG projects in Ukraine.
DTEK is looking to assess UCG as a means to address Ukraine’s growing reliance on imported, expensive and often unreliable natural gas and fill the capacity gap at its existing gas-fired power plants.

Wildhorse Energy said it is making significant progress” in its push towards becoming a leading energy supplier in central and eastern Europe.

In the first half of 2012, the company said it has enhanced the value of its underground coal gasification and uranium assets.

It added that key aims, such as the finalisation of a Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) at its flagship Mecsek Hills UCG Project and the formal endorsement to discuss the development of a joint venture to advance its uranium interests, have helped the company into its next phase of development.
 
In summary we have a significant opportunity for building value both on a project and corporate level, said Wildhorse managing director Matt Swinney.
 
Over the coming months we anticipate making substantial progress with regards to our strategic partner search, uranium joint venture negotiations, and portfolio expansion, all of which I am confident will culminate in another year of strong progression for Wildhorse.

Despite being ordered to close their Underground Coal Gasification pilot plant at Kingaroy, Cougar Energy is optimistic about re-opening the failed project.

Earlier this week the company announced it intended to place their other coal assets at Mackenzie and Wandoan on the market for divestment.

Cougar Energy corporate finance and investor relations general manager Brad Glynne said the move was part of the company's strategy to "rapidly expand" its application of UCG technology across suitable coal reserves in Asian countries.

But he said due to the ongoing court case the Kingaroy site would not be put on the market.

"We have spent a lot of money on the UCG project at Kingaroy and we would like it to be successful," Mr Glynne said.

Proactive Investors - Eneabba Gas is searching for Chinese opportunities for its Sargon UCG project in Mid West region of Western Australia, including a possible joint involvement in the project that will combine Chinese UCG industry experience with its knowledge of the Sargon area.

This will serve to fast track development of Sargon into a world class UCG project.¨This comes as strategic partnerships are being formed between Australian energy and UCG companies and Chinese companies.

Eneabba is now planning to drill a baseline water monitoring well on Sargon in September.

Proactive Investors - Cougar Energy is considering a potential divestment of non-strategic tenements in Australia to focus on its UCG strategy in Asia.The company is continuing negotiations with local partners in China, Mongolia and Indonesia to gain access to coal leases identified to have UCG development potential.

In Indonesia, Cougar and its partner PT Medco Energi Mining Internasional are now focused on three prospective project areas, two in Kalimantan and one in Sumatra.This will focus on UCG to power generation projects with initial capacity of about 30 megawatts that can be scaled up at a later date.In China, Cougar is in the process of selecting a site to start a pilot UCG burn on a coal deposit within the Wu Ni Te coal basin.

Preparatory technical design, equipment specifications and the identification of local support services are being carried out to minimise mobilisation delay once permits have been issued.

By Peter McCusker

Published on Oil Price.com (http://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Coal-Set-to-Make-a-Comeback-with-Underground-Coal-Gasification.html)

Following a 100 year gestation period there are signs we could be about to witness the birth of a new coal rush.

The first UCG trials - during which coal inherent energy is extracted in situ - were conducted in the North East of England in 1912. One hundred years later scientists and businesspeople based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, just a few miles from the site of the original trials, have launched a new drive to fully commercialise the potential of the earth remaining 850 billion tonnes of coal.

They are amongst a host of global teams now working on commercial-scale UCG schemes, using directional drilling techniques from oil and gas exploration, which have added new momentum to the industry. In Australia Linc Energy UCG demonstration facility in Chinchilla, Queensland, Australia is operating successfully.

And last month it signed a multi-million dollar deal with Chinese company GCL Projects Limited, a subsidiary of Golden Concord Group Limited, to commercialise UCG in China. In the US, a project at Cook Inlet, Alaska, plans to go commercial in 2015, as is the US $1.4billion Swan Hills UCG site in Alberta, Canada.

In the UK the Coal Authority has granted 18 UK licences to companies keen on using UCG to access some of the UK  remaining reserves.

Newcastle-based Five-Quarter, which has spun out of the city University, has the licence for a 400sq km area of the North Sea, stretching from the mouth of the River Tyne up to the Scottish border.

Prof Dermot Roddy, a director of Five-Quarter, said: The UK was the originator of UCG technology, when Sir William Ramsay conducted exploratory experiments in the Durham coalfield in 1912.

World War One put a stop to these and UCG was later neglected in the UK while its abundant domestic reserves of oil and gas were exploited. But the use of directional drilling technologies, an increased emphasis on energy security, and rising oil and gas prices has led to a renewed surge of interest.

The technology is now maturing and reserves have been accessed with extended reach wells penetrating more than 20 km laterally at depths of over 400 meters. During the UCG process oxygen and steam are pumped through a directionally drilled borehole to ignite the coal.

As the supply of oxygen is limited, the coal is partially oxidised, forming a gas that still retains around 80% of the original energy content of solid coal. This syngas  a combination of hydrogen carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane - is then recovered from a production borehole for use in power generation or conversion into liquid fuels. Five-Quarter is currently in talks with investors as it aims to raise at least £30m to start work on a demonstration facility.

Meanwhile one of the UK major oil and gas industry players has entered the UCG market. Clean Coal Limited was formed five years ago by Rohan Courtney OBE, who helped to turn Tullow Oil into one of Britain's biggest companies, by exploiting neglected energy reserves in Africa and the North Sea.

It has five UK licences and is also advising on schemes in Indonesia, China, India and Vietnam. Some of UCG’s major players have been recruited to its team including its head Marc Mostade, who has over 20 years experience in UCG ranging from research to managing UCG pilot plants.

He is assisted by Paul Ahner, who has participated in all of the US UCG field trials from 1977 and consulted for 18 months on Linc energy Chinchilla project.

Fellow CCL staffer Dr Shaun Lavis, believes UCG is the ideal bridging technology to get through the next 30 years, until renewables are more thoroughly developed. He said: In the last decade UCG has become more viable. The main driver of this has been the use of highly accurate drilling technologies borrowed from the oil and gas industries.

This has helped reduce the cost of recovery with the Swan Hills scheme likely to come in at as little as US $2 per gigajoules, bringing its close to parity with that of shale gas. As a carbon fuel, carbon dioxide emissions concern producers and for future schemes to be politically sustainable they will need to come with carbon capture and storage.

The goaf which is left in the gasified seams is being explored as one storage option and some current schemes are using the carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery in subsea oil and gas fields. The Swan Hill scheme in Canada will capture and sequestrate over 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 each year from its 300MW power station

UCG supporters say concerns over possible groundwater contamination and subsidence can be mitigated through careful site selection, project design, and monitoring. In India, the government is looking at UCG to utilize the 60% of its 270 billion tonnes of un-minable coal.

In neighbouring Pakistan the Thar project in Sindh Province is expected to produce 100MW of electricity by the end of 2013, using UCG. Dr Lavis added: In areas such as India, Pakistan and Africa where they are frequent power outages and substantial coal reserves the benefits of UCG are obvious.”

With over 85% of the world coal reserves unmineable UCG has the potential to play a major role in the supporting the world energy needs for generations to come. North East England, the home of the railways, used its abundant coal reserves to fuel the first industrial revolution and it may now play its part in a new revolution in the way its abundant coal reserves are used.

Budapest Business Journal - Wildhorse has signed a co-operation agreement with the Hungarian government to formalse the legislative and regulatory framework required to develop UCG projects in Hungary.

"Both parties believe that this could provide Hungary with an opportunity to develop its extensive stranded coal reserves and potentially provide the blue print for UCG project development across Europe as governments seek to develop their own resources and establish energy independence," according to the statement.

"The potential for UCG to establish itself as an important technology in the region is increasingly being recognized due to its ability to capture the energy content from billions of tons of stranded coal assets in a frack-free’ way," said Wildhorse Energy managing director Matt Swinney.

"As a result of the cooperation, Hungary is poised to become a regional leader in UCG with regards to the legislative framework and deep pool of required skills and expertise," Wildhorse Energy said.

The director of the Punjab University Center for Coal Technology, Dr Shahid Munir, said open pit mining is the right strategy to utilise Thar Coal and rejected the Thar UCG Project claiming it was not technically nor economically feasible.

K2 radio - The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is considering whether to allow Linc Energy to build an underground coal gasification demonstration facility outside of Wright.

Linc submitted the second part of its proposal in April. The state hasn't approved or denied the project, but it is responding with questions and comments.

Company spokeswoman Maria VanderKolk says the demonstration process would last 90 days and aims to determine if Linc can commercially produce synthetic gas out of coal from the Powder River Basin.

The public will get to comment on Linc application after details are worked out with the state.

Proactive Investors - Carbon Energy has released a report confirming the commercial viability of producing synthetic natural gas from UCG.

Brisbane based process engineering specialists LogiCamms estimated the cost of producing at least eight petajoules of pipeline quality gas per annum at between A$3.50 per gigajoule (GJ) to A$4.50/GJ excluding the carbon tax and other taxes.

This compares to recent Queensland Government forecasts that natural gas prices would hit A$6.50/GJ to over A$10/GJ by 2015.

Proactive Investors - Linc Energy is drawing close to starting up UCG and gas to liquids operations in China as it finalises joint venture arrangements with GCL Projects Limited.
The company said both parties are progressing towards completing the last few points of negotiation across the legal documentation, which covers issues from Intellectual Property access and protection, through to site selection and work programs.

Linc added the current preferred site is a large coal area within Inner Mongolia that is owned by GCL, which holds a substantial amount of data.
The deal is expected to be concluded in the second half of this year.

Under the agreement with GCL, a subsidiary of Hong Kong listed Golden Concord Holdings, construction of the first multi-gasifier project will start within six months of the signing of formal binding legal documents.

The two companies will use the UCG and gas to liquids (GTL) process which Linc has developed over the past 5 years at its Chinchilla demonstration project in Queensland.

By Grant Bradley

New Zealand Herald - Outgoing Solid Energy chairman John Palmer says the state-owned enterprise aims to be ready for partial sale late next year and will potentially attract more foreign interest than other energy companies because it will be a riskier investment.

The company is regarded as the most complex of the energy companies being primed for partial sale given its exposure to global commodity markets and the implications of carbon pricing for coal.

By Julie Lauder & Phil Smith, Underground Coal Gasification Association

Reproduced from American Coal magazine

Underground Coal Gasification is finally coming into its own in many parts of the world, but the US market has yet to actively embrace this technology. Could this be about to change?

Many believe the term “clean coal” to be an oxymoron. Despite that resistance, the amount of coal available globally ensures that it will be a mainstay of our energy needs well into the future. Therefore, the challenge facing industry is to find methods that ensure we can extract the energy from coal in as low-cost, safe, and environmentally responsible ways as possible.

That Clean Coal, and Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) certainly has a part to play.

Many believe the UCG process of converting coal to energy offers huge potential to clean coal and enable economical access to stranded coal deposits, an estimated 1.7 trillion metric tones (1.9 trillion short tons) globally. It’s not a new idea, but one that is rapidly coming to the attention of policy makers, as an economical and politically acceptable method to meet growing energy needs.

Mining coal has environmental impacts; so extracting the energy from coal while it is still in the ground makes a lot of sense. Via UCG, coal is directly converted to a synthetic gas – suitable for industrial heating, power generation, hydrogen manufacture, synthetic natural gas, diesel fuel, liquid fuels, fertilizers and other chemical feedstock. Many experts believe UCG could triple or even quadruple recoverable coal reserves globally.

Converting just five percent of U.S.-based coal reserves to liquid fuels would provide an energy resource equivalent to crude reserves of 29 billion barrels!

One would expect the developing and energy-hungry nations of India, China and South Africa to be advancing and researching alternate technologies such as UCG. But other nations  Australia, Canada, New Zealand and many in Europe  are now also vigorously investigating commercial deployment of UCG, as the map above shows.

That is good news for the US, which like many western economies has seen a huge backlash towards coal production, while at the same time an increased demand for domestic energy.

Plus, UCG is not new to the US. Many recent technological and operational developments are a direct result of over 30 extensive US trials that were carried out between 1973 and 1989, in Wyoming, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, under the auspices of the DOE and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory* (LLNL), which remains a leading authority on UCG.

Additionally, as UCG is a multidiscipline technology, many in the US already possess the skills, knowledge and expertise that the global UCG industry is seeking.

The process of converting coal to gas underground involves using horizontal and directional drilling techniques, where two wells are drilled into the coal. An oxidant – either air or oxygen or air/oxygen, with or without steam is fed into one well.

The coal is then ignited and partially combusted, and the resultant product gas is brought to the surface for processing via the second well. The process can be halted at any time by stopping the injection of the oxygen or air. Once a particular coal seam is exhausted, new wells are drilled to initiate the gasification reaction in a different section of the coal seam. A pair of wells can last as long as 15 years. The technology also lends itself easily to carbon capture, asthe process enables relatively simple, low-cost carbon removal from the syngas, prior to use.

Can all coal be gasified underground?

Alas, no. Many factors such as seam depth and thickness, coal grade, groundwater conditions, and seam inclination must all be considered; site selection is paramount for a successful project. Generally, seams between 120m and 2000m (390 to 6,600) deep are preferable.

After the coal is converted to syngas in a particular location, the remaining cavity (which will contain the leftover ash or slag from the coal, as well as other rock material) may be flooded with saline water and the wells capped. There is also growing interest in using these cavities to store the carbon dioxide captured from the aboveground processing.

UCG operates at pressures below that of the natural coal seam pressure, thus ensuring materials are not pushed out into the surrounding formations. This is in sharp contrast to hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas production, where pressures significantly above natural formation pressure are used to force fracking chemicals into the formation.

Despite many apparent benefits, obstacles to UCG remain.

One obstacle is a lack of funding (due to a lack of coherent licensing and regulatory frameworks) and lack of government interest (mainly due to negative connotations associated with coal). There are also environmental concerns, which hamper growth of the sector, such as possible groundwater contamination and subsidence  both of which can be mitigated through careful site selection, project design, and monitoring.

It is in the interests of all that the UCG process is safe and fully tested, so public and political concerns are acknowledged and explored. This is helped by live, active UCG projects currently being conducted in nations around the world and bolstered by a high level of interest in many others.

The Chinchilla and Bloodwood Creek sites in Queensland, Australia and Mecsek Hills site in Hungary have moved the process up a notch as they are now producing syngas for commercial use.

In India, the government is looking at UCG to utilize the 60 percent of its 270 billion tones of unminable coal. In neighboring Pakistan the Thar project in Sindh Province is expected to produce 100MW of electricity by the end of 2013.

In the US, a project at Cook Inlet, Alaska, plans to go commercial in 2015, as does the Swan Hills UCG site in Alberta, Canada. There is also substantial interest for projects in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, Alaska and many commercial UCG companies are looking to expand operations in the US in the coming year.

As the industry grows, so too does the need to share knowledge surrounding national regulation and non-commercially sensitive technological advancements. The need has never been greater to show both investors and regulators that UCG can play a major role in alleviating the energy crisis by providing low cost, environmentally-sensitive energy for decades to come.

http://www.americancoalonline.com/features/underground-coal-gasification/

Gas Today - Carbon Energy has successfully confirmed the ‘Proof of Concept’ for its proprietary keyseam UCG technology with over twelve months’ continuous production of consistent high quality syngas, the reliable generation of electricity, and commercialisation by export into the local grid from its Bloodwood Creek project site near Dalby in southwest Queensland.

 

In achieving Proof of Concept, the company has demonstrated the following key elements:

• Drilling and construction of Carbon Energy’s unique panel design
• Ignition and commissioning of two UCG panels
• Twelve months’ continuous syngas production from UCG Panel 2
• Consistent production of high-quality syngas
• Reliable operation of internal combustion engine-driven electricity generators
• Reliable export of electricity to the local electricity grid
• Validation of gasification prediction models with operational data
• Validated that panels adjacent to each other can operate independently
• Management of groundwater during operations
• Panel shutdown and progressive rehabilitation is underway.

 

Carbon Energy said it is now well placed to realise value through commercialising the technology after having invested approximately $100 million and five years in its development, in addition to 10 years of research by the CSIRO.

 

Following a strategic review which confirmed the company’s strategic direction, Carbon Energy said it would actively pursue commercial-scale projects with coal owners and energy end users (including electricity, chemicals and liquids) both in Australia and offshore in addition to its current projects in Chile, North America and Europe.

 

The company also said that it would work with the newly formed Queensland Government to obtain approvals required to develop Bloodwood Creek to a commercial-scale project. The company is currently seeking partners to help realise value from its existing gas assets at the project site.

Wildhorse Energy has confirmed the potential of its Mecsek Hills UCG project in southern Hungary to produce syngas as feedstock for power stations across central and Eastern Europe.

 

The pre-feasibility study found the UCG process could produce gas to substitute for the imported gas required to meet increased demand under Hungary’s recently approved Energy Strategy.

 

This calls for the installation of 2000 to 3000 MW equivalent of new gas-fired power generation capacity over the following 20-30 years.

 

Wildhorse will now start work on a bankable feasible study focused on the first phase of its 2 phase 180 MW equivalent power generation project.
This consists of a 61 MW equivalent commercial demonstration combined cycle gas turbine power plant that is expected to come into production in 2014.

 

Development of the Phase 2 large scale commercial plant, which will be capable of producing 130 MW equivalent of electricity, will follow immediately after commissioning of Phase 1.

 

Both the UCG and power generation units of the Phase 1 project will be sold to a strategic partner after an intended demonstration of reliable syngas generation and operation of the power plant for a period of 6-12 months.

 

The pre-feasibility study also identified a number of coal seams at the Váralja target area that are suitable for UCG development.
It found that just 22 million tonnes of the 185 million tonne inferred coal resource at the Váralja would be needed to support both phases of the project for 25 years.

 

Wildhorse said the study was a landmark development in the advancement of UCG application against the backdrop of the extremely positive pricing environment for energy production in the region due to the reliance on gas imports.

 

Hungary and European Union import about 80% and 36% of their gas from Russia respectively, leaving them highly susceptible to price hikes forced on them from the giant gas producer.

Linc Energy hopes to secure investment from a Chinese entity within weeks, and has experienced fresh interest in an auction of Australian coal assets worth over A$1 billion.

Linc hopes to build its next commercial UCG project in China with assistance from the unnamed Chinese investor, said Chief Executive Peter Bond.

Bond declined to say how much of Brisbane-based Linc will be sold, but said the investment likely won't be has high as 10-20%.

"It'll be a relatively small stake," Bond said. "But I think in the scheme of things it will be significant to the commercialisation of underground coal gasification and gas-to-liquids. And it'll be a significant revaluation of some of the assets within the group, including the UCG technology."

Bond said the China deal was expected to be completed this quarter. "I still think we're very close to doing that," he said.

Reuters - India is at least a decade behind China in embracing technology that could convert its coal reserves into enough gas and oil to surmount chronic power shortages and halve its energy import bill of $110 billion a year.

 

Talk about coal gasification in India, a technology used to access even unmineable reserves, is almost four decades old, but it is only now that its first such plant is about to start production. A second one is still on the drawing board.

 

It will be at least five more years before India reaps significant benefits from this technology to produce feedstock for more steel, power and fertilisers, experts say.

 

"India is lagging behind in adopting technologies related to coal gasification," said Parthasarathi Deb, Senior Vice President (Gasification) of Reliance Industries Ltd.

 

In comparison, China has some 50 coal gasification plants running and it is ploughing ahead with another 40. And while India is just beginning to turn coal into gas, China has already moved into producing liquid fuels such as diesel from coal.

 

The difference means India's coal-use efficiency is about half the world average of 50%, its coal-dependent power producers have never met production targets and the country's total electricity output is just a fifth of China's.

 

"Only about a third of India's proven coal reserves is mineable, which means gasification should have been the top priority if India were serious about using coal efficiently," said Amitava Banerjee, technical adviser of Lurgi India.

 

The country's first coal gasification plant is being built by private sector Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. State-run Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizer and Gas Authority of India Ltd are working on the second one.

 

Jindal's plant in the eastern state of Orissa will use low-quality, high-ash coal, the variety that abounds in India, to produce 5.7m standard cubic metre per day of gas.

 

With its 350 billion tonnes of potential reserves, India is the world's fourth most coal-rich nation. But it is a net importer, dragged down by state controls over mining rights, regulatory hurdles and land acquisition problems.

 

In a country where millions of people live in the forested mountains that hold much of the coal and other minerals, there is political pressure to keep those areas off-limits.

 

Although coal is seen as the solution to India's power shortage, the regulations are a daunting barrier to development in a country where half a billion people don't have access to power, and electricity from renewable sources is too expensive.

 

Technologies such as gasification should have been a natural choice as India seeks to lower carbon emissions, experts say.

 

But private players stayed away from coal gasification projects as government controls restricted large-scale access to coal to state firms.

 

"Though coal is used to produce more than half of our power, it has never been the focus," said A.K. Shrivastava, director of private power producers Abhijeet group.

 

"Now the government wants to focus on nuclear and renewable energy. What is needed is an integrated policy that enables the private sector to invest in clean coal technology."

 

Underground coal gasification process involves combusting underground coal deposits into gas by using oil extraction technology. Proponents of underground coal gasification argue the process creates lower carbon emissions and has a smaller footprint than traditional surface gasification where the mineral is mined and processed in facilities above ground.

 

The technology is expensive but a rise in oil and gas prices means underground coal gasification could become more economical.

 

India's coal demand is set to jump to 980m tonnes by 2017, but output in that period may only be 795m tonnes.

 

But under India's current coal policies, experts say, producers will not be able to plug the shortfall.

 

State-run Coal India, which accounts for about 80% of the country's output, aims to produce 464m tonnes in 2012/13, and has already scaled down output target to 440m tonnes in 2011/12.

 

Coal India is still to come up with any concrete gasification plans.

 

Coal will be required for 85 % of the additional 76,000 MW capacity addition the country targets during 2012-17.

Linc Energy has reached the final phase in the development of its UCG technology prior to its commercial roll-out.

The milestone came when the company started producing syngas from its fifth gasifier at the Chinchilla demonstration facility, the first of its kind in the western world to operate multi-panel UCG gasifiers.

Linc chief executive officer Peter Bond said Gasifier 5 was producing gas within an hour of ignition, the fastest commissioning of any UCG operation in the world.

Gasifier 5, which is 132 metres deep and 820 metres long, is expected to produce up to 480,000 gigajoules of energy during its two-to-three-year life expectancy.

Mr Bond said the gasifier would give Linc Energy the most comprehensive UCG data set anywhere in the world

He said it would allow the company to perfect its technical evaluation methods, in turn building confidence in the economic and environmental performance of commercial UCG projects prior to start-up.

The Chinchilla demonstration facility, which employs 45 fulltime staff, is located south-east of Chinchilla on Kummerows Rd, about 60km west of Dalby.

"These latest achievements, combined with a long heritage of UCG operating experience, means Linc Energy is uniquely positioned with capabilities that are ready to be deployed in commercial operations for clean energy and fuels applications around the world," Mr Bond said.

"When you overlay that capability with the company's established global coal footprint, that's when things really get exciting."

by William Green

Members of the UK Parliament from the North-East of England say the region could play a central role in a "clean coal" revolution and spark a new jobs boom ... but fear Government inaction could scupper developments.

Chi Onwurah, member for Newcastle Central, led MPs in setting out how the region’s vast coal reserves could be extracted using new “clean” methods developed in the North-East.

And thousands of new jobs could be created, North-East MPs said. But they questioned whether ministers were doing everything to help support the sector.

Onwurah said: “Five Quarter, a company spun out of Newcastle University, has licences from the Coal Authority to exploit 2bn tonnes off the Northumberland coast.

“Using new technologies and processes, in energy terms that is equivalent to 11bn barrels of oil – and that is just one company. Yet in 2010 we imported 26.5m tonnes of coal.”

Underground coal “gasification” and carbon capture and storage (CCS) are two areas where the UK could become a “world-beater” in clean energy production, she said.

The first technique converts coal in deep seams to a high-energy synthetic gas, and Onwurah said the technology and gas produced were “relatively clean, compared with coal-fired generation and surface mining”.

She agreed with Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery that thanks to its abundant reserves and expertise the region could play a “tremendous” role and create thousands of “clean energy” jobs.

But companies might not invest in the UK unless the Government ended “confusion” about its strategy, said Onwurah who called into doubt ministers’ commitment to CCS.

She claimed the Treasury had raided the fund for CCS schemes after the failure of a demonstration project, resulting in a delay of up to eight years in terms of another proposal being developed.

“What assessment have the Government made of the economic potential for clean coal, and when will he be in a position to make a long-term decision on whether the Government will support it?” said Onwurah, a shadow business minister.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry claimed Onwurah had “distorted” the situation and that the Government was taking CCS forward, not least because of the “more intermittent” power generation from renewable sources. But that meant tackling carbon emissions, he said.

His department had created a new division to take CCS “forward with all speed” and insisted £1bn was still available with a new competition being launched within weeks – although it was unlikely anyone would come forward for the money in this spending round. European funding plus £125m for research was also available, said the Minister.

He also said the Government would seek to minimise red tape when it came to underground coal gasification, and looked forward to working with Onwurah and Newcastle University to take the matter forward.

Newcastle-based Five-Quarter, which is working up its plans for gasification sites it hopes will create thousands of jobs, hopes to be in full production in a decade.

Director, Prof Paul Younger, said: “I appreciate that Chi is raising the profile of the industry. It is important to keep it on the agenda.

“But ministers have taken time to talk to us about our plans in both this Government and the last. Sometimes we struggle to get it on to the political radar, but I think we are now.”

Cougar Energy has secured a A$9.7 million funding agreement with The Australian Special Opportunity Fund to fund development of its projects in Asia and Australia.

In China, Cougar is in the process of selecting a site to start a pilot UCG burn on a coal deposit within the Wu Ni Te coal basin.

Preparatory technical design, equipment specifications and the identification of local support services are being carried out to minimise mobilisation delay once permits have been issued.

Cougar is continuing discussions with the Mongolian government into the use of UCG to develop local coal resources and is working on a work program for its Indonesian joint venture with MedcoEnergi.

The company is also in talks with Pakistani companies in regards to developing its coal lease in the Thar coal region.

The ASOF funding agreement has a two-year term that consists of a A$375,000 zero coupon convertible security and monthly A$100,000 equity purchases that can be increased up to A$400,000 per month by mutual consent.

Cougar said the first component is provided as a loan and will be applied to the convertible security, once shareholder approval has been obtained.

The monthly equity purchases will be satisfied by Cougar issuing ordinary fully paid shares to ASOF with the issue price to be determined by reference to the volume weighted average price of the company's shares during a predetermined pricing period.

Funding of A$ 500,000 (loan and first monthly draw down) has being advanced to Cougar, which has the option after six months to postpone the monthly equity purchases or terminate the agreement at no cost.

ASOF is a New York-based institutional investor managed by The Lind Partners.

 

by Angela Kean

ECSI is working towards finalising the acquisition of an option to acquire seven coal permits in Hungary with capital raisings totalling $150,000 by way of a share placement and convertible note issue.

Importantly, the money raised will place ECSI in a strong financial position to be able to fund the transaction costs associated with the proposed acquisitions announced in late January, and to provide working capital.

The company will place 20m shares at A$0.005 each to a sophisticated investor to raise $100,000.

ECSI has also issued a convertible note to Song Je Yeng for $50,000, convertible into 10m shares. The term for the convertible note is six months, with an interest rate of 8% per annum.

Under the acquisition, ECSI secured an option agreement to acquire all of the issued shares in Synclean Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Synclean Energy, which owns permits covering around 738 sq km prospective for UCG-suitable coal seams in two different regions of Hungary.

The Hungarian Permits are located in areas of relatively good infrastructure with access to both road and rail in an area with a rich history of mining. The permits are also located close to potential markets and well situated to take advantage of the regional pipeline network and power stations.
If ECSI chooses to exercise the option to acquire the permits, the company will have exclusive rights to explore and investigate coal seams suitable below 300 metres for UCG use.

The Vesprem permits – comprising Bakony-North I, Bakony-North II, Gerecse and Berhida – are known to contain resources of high grade brown coal well suited for use as part of a potential UCG operation.

The permits contain between two and four coal seams at a depth of below 300 metres. The average thickness of the seams is two metres, with a maximum thickness of four metres developed in some areas of the permit.

The Mecsek Mountains permits are comprised of three separate permits – Volgyseg-Hegyhet, Komlodeep and Hosszuheteny West. Historical data indicates that the permits contain up to 60 separate coal seams. The coal seams attain a maximum thickness of 30 metres, although the mean seam thickness in the permit area is around one metre.

The coal seams in the Mecsek area are deeper than on the Vesprem Bakony permit area with depths in excess of 450 metres, 550 metres and 800 metres for Hosszuheteny, Hegyhat, and Komlo-deep respectively.

The greater depth of the seams makes the coal ideal for UCG purposes as it can exploit coal seams that are uneconomic for conventional mining.

Importantly, ECSI has access to existing data on the coal seams from more than 11,000 exploration wells drilled, which the company will use to fast track the initial site selection process.

Carbon Energy has become the first Australian company to export electricity generated by syngas produced from its Bloodwood Creek underground coal gasification plant near Dalby, Queensland. The successful test export to Ergon Enegy Corporation’s local electricity grid paves the way for the sale of electricity from Bloodwood Creek, the company’s first revenue milestone.

KARACHI: Tharparkar’s underground coal gasification project is facing delays and the deadline for completion of the project may further be extended as pledged funds have not yet been received from the provincial and federal governments.

The Sindh government is yet to release Rs200 million while the centre is to transfer Rs5 billion for purchasing power engines and other equipment.

Sources said that President Asif Ali Zardari has taken notice of delay in the release of funds and would review the project’s progress shortly.

The government plans to purchase engines of 1.5MW each to use the gas for generating power and the project was expected to generate at least 100MW by mid-next year.

Overall, $1.2 billion funds are required for the proposed 84 gasifiers and its financial feasibility report had been sent to the government.

Pakistan is enriched with huge deposits of untapped coal reserves in Sindh to attain self-sufficiency in power production and different energy needs, including industrial and domestic gas and automobile fuels.

Sources said Block-5 (64sq km) of Thar allocated for gasification project could meet the energy demands of the country for over 30-35 years as it has reserves of 1.4 billion tons.The
country can easily meet the expected demands of around 2200 mmcft by 2015 through the project with an investment of merely $1.2 billion.

The UCG project at Tharparker started under the supervision of Dr Samar Mubarakmand and was successfully producing gas.

The first test-burn at the underground coal gasification project was carried out in December 2011 after completing the first gasifier and civil works with the availability of $9.22 million funds. The completion of a gasifier also involves over 36,000 feet of drilling and 18,000 feet of steel-casing and other engineering works.

The pilot project in the first phase was initially aimed at generating gas for producing 100MW by next year, and is now being planned to be extended from approved 18 to 84 gasifiers.

According to an estimate, a gasifier could easily produce the required gas for at least 10 years. The project ensures immediate supply of gas besides power generated by the underground gasification would be much cheaper.

The electricity generated through the process would be available at $16 per MW as compared to $77 per MW and $69 per MW produced through Integrated Gas Combined Cycle and Natural Gas Combined Cycle, respectively.

The demand of gas in the country is currently 5,500 mmcft as against daily production of 4,000mmcft. There will be a shortfall of 1,500mmcft in 2012 and it may reach 2,200mmcft by 2015.

To meet the expected demand, almost 84 gasifiers were needed to be established at the side as a gasifier was estimated to produce at least 26.5 mmcft gas.

Currently only one gasifier has started producing gas while another 17 units are in the pipeline.

At least 49 to 50 gasifiers would be established in one square km of the Block-5 which was stretched over 64 sq km.

One gasifier was being built at a cost of Rs1.2 billion, making the total cost of 84 units Rs101 billion or $1.12 billion.

 

Linc Energy founder Peter Bond said the company is ready to sign a deal to commercialise its UCG technology. Bond stated on 16 January that the agreement with a Chinese group will be signed "within weeks". He described the deal as being bigger than any of Linc's other UCG agreements.

An energy company has revealed it wants to apply for planning permission and a permit to drill for coal and extract the gas from under Swansea Bay.

Clean Coal Limited has five licences around the coast of Britain and is trying to locate reserves which are too deep to be mined.

It is thought up to a billions tonnes of coal could lie beneath the surface.

But WWF Cymru say the focus should be on renewable energy not fossil fuels.

During the past two years the Coal Authority, on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, have - without much publicity - issued 18 underground coal gasification (UCG) licences.

Most are off the east coast of England and Scotland. The 77 sq km Swansea Bay licence is the only one in Welsh waters.

Shaun Lavis, Clean Coal Ltd's senior geoscientist, said: "We're expecting to find up to around a billion tonnes of coal actually in place under the whole of Swansea Bay in our licence area.

"What we hope to do is undertake an exploration programme to identify an area of around 30 to 50m tonnes or so of that coal that's suited for underground coal gasification."

He said UCG was more controlled than burning and did not produce as much heat and carbon dioxide.

He added: "Furthermore, what happens when you gasify the coal in the subsurface, is that a lot of the ash, or most of the ash and sulphur compounds will actually stay underground as well, so you don't have the issues with ash disposal and so forth that you might do with a conventional coal-fired power station."

The basic idea of UCG is that you find coal seams which are up to 500m (1,641 ft) underground - far too deep to mine, and probably too expensive and dangerous as well.

After drilling to find coal, a newer technology of horizontal drilling modified from the oil industry would then allow air and oxygen to be injected down to ignite the coal.

Oxygen combusts with the coal-producing synthesis gas - a combination of carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen. The gas, or syngas, could then be piped to the surface via another borehole.

Swansea councillor Darren Price said members of the public would welcome potential job creation.

However, he added: "From a personal point of view, I want to see a lot more research and analysis in terms of the process and any potential negative impact environmentally."

He said it was still an "unknown process" and that the safety of local residents would be "paramount" when it came to the issue of storing gas.

Any potential new sources of gas obviously interest the UK government, especially like the controversial shale gas, if it is plentiful underground in Britain.

There are UCG plants producing gas in Australia and Central Asia but none in Europe as yet.

As with any drilling, especially for fossil fuels, there would be concerns if such operations were allowed, for several environmental reasons.

Alun James, policy officer with environmental group WWF Cymru, said: "Our concerns to do with any new use of fossil fuels would be that if these were used before carbon collection and storage was perfected."

He said there could be alternatives to burning coal in power stations, adding: "We still think that the focus should be on renewable energy and using energy more efficiently because there are still concerns about climate change."

It is early days, but Clean Coal Ltd, whose conditional licence to survey for coal for gasification may have to be extended at the end of the year, says it wants to ask for planning approval for exploratory drilling and permits to conduct seismic surveys on the eastern side of Swansea Bay later this year.

Source – BBC News

Finance News Network reports that shares in Cougar Energy rose after the company released a report detailing progress made on its Asian expansion. Cougar launched its Asia strategy in October last year and began talks with officials from China, Mongolia and Indonesia to identify coal deposits suitable for development.

The company now says it has been investigating the approvals process in each country and finalising a new corporate structure within which Asian projects will be developed.

In China Cougar has submitted a Feasibility Study Report on a proposed project and is working on the approval process.

Work is also continuing in Mongolia and Indonesia with views to study and develop potential underground coal gasification sites.

Riverside Energy granted a UCG licence by the UK Coal Authority for an offshore site in the Thames estuary.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has directed the release of funds for the Thar Power Project which aims to produce coal gas from the Underground Coal Gasification of Thar Coal.

The project will generate 100MW of electricity by the end of 2013 at a total cost of Rs9.9 billion. The Prime Minister pledged Rs2.4 billion for this year and the remaining amount during the next financial year to start power generation before the end of 2013.

 

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has directed the release of funds for the Thar Power Project which aims to produce coal gas from the Underground Coal Gasification of Thar Coal.

The project will generate 100MW of electricity by the end of 2013 at a total cost of Rs9.9 billion. The Prime Minister pledged Rs2.4 billion for this year and the remaining amount during the next financial year to start power generation before the end of 2013.

The interest in the UCG project in the Sindh province is driven by a major looming energy crisis in the country. Power supply is a major concern in Pakistan, reported Citigroup. With about 50% less electricity generation capability than actual demand, Pakistan’s National Grid is facing more than a 5,000MW shortfall in power generation, leading to load shedding in urban and rural areas of the country. 

So last month’s successful pilot, which saw the ignition of coal 600 feet below ground, was a boost. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad last week said that the Thar coal power project is a top priority of the government as its commissioning would help make the country self-sufficient in its energy requirement and subsequently turn it into a stable economy.

Japan has shown interest to finance the much needed laying of the transmission line up to the Thar coalfield, which is needed to expedite power generation from the coalfield.

Japan has been historically averse to finance coal power projects due to environmental issues, but its stance has dramatically changed after the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, after it was hit by tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Mitsubishi Corp. is planning on investing in the energy sector. Energy and Mineral Resources Deputy Minister Widjajono said the Japanese company will invest in the processing of coal to natural gas in South Sumatra.

Indonesia has large coal reserves which have yet to be optimised. According to Widjajono, some 80% of coal is intended for exports, while only the remaining 20% is allocated for the domestic market.

Mitsubishi has offered a selling price for the company’s gas product, which is 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The price is lower than fuel generated electricity which can cost up to 36 cents per kWh.

The natural gas substitute refinery is expected to begin operations in 2017. The construction process will begin next year. Despite being processed in South Sumatra, the gas will be distributed to Java through pipes.

Thar coal power generation project has completed successfully said project chairman Dr Samar Mubarakmand. It will start producing 100MW electricity, increasing capacity to produce electricity at Rs2 per unit.

The project can produce 100million barrel diesel per year.

The coal was burnt at about 250 feet underground on December 11, on December 19 and the success of the Thar coal project should lead to inward investment.

Cougar Energy has signed an MOU with PT Medco Energi Mining Internasional to assess and identify coal deposits in Indonesia suitable for UCG technology and prepare for preliminary studies on their commercial development, the company said.

The Alberta government has announced that it will contribute $285m to a coal gasification project that will tap into a deep, unmineable “stranded coal” seam north-west of Edmonton. The Swan Hill Synfuels project will cost $1.5 billion to build and will eventually fuel 300MW of power generation.

The company and the government say the new plant will combine the stable, low-cost energy supply typical of coal-fired generators with the lower environmental impact typical of natural gas.

Energy Minister Ron Liepert said the $285m provincial investment will benefit Albertans by helping to create an inexpensive, reliable and more environmentally friendly energy source.

“This project, with the carbon capture and storage, clearly will meet — if not exceed — (federal emissions) standards,” Liepert said, adding the federal government is expected to announce new, stringent performance standards for coal-fired electricity generation by the end of the year.

“Coal is still 60% of our electricity production, and we are going to have to find a replacement.”

The provincial government estimates there are 37 billion tonnes of coal in Alberta still to be mined. The Alberta Geological Study estimates the province has an additional 620 billion tonnes of so-called “stranded coal,” which has until now been considered inaccessible and essentially worthless.

In 2009, the provincial government’s Alberta Energy Research Institute provided Swan Hills Synfuels with an $8.8m research grant to help build North America’s first coal gasification demonstration project.

Swan Hills Synfuels CEO Martin Lambert said the project will create a significant new industry in Alberta and will make a meaningful contribution to global knowledge about how to best use the planet’s resources in an environmentally responsible way.

By Laura Zuckerman, Reuters

The federal government has given final approval to an $85m, eight-year pilot project to inject a million tons of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, into underground rock formations in Montana for storage.

The Montana State University project seeks to determine whether carbon dioxide emissions from sources such as coal-fired power plants and cement production can be safely and economically captured and stored instead of being released into the atmosphere.

The Big Sky Sequestration Project comes as the US Energy Department is underwriting numerous carbon capture and storage experiments aimed at reducing greenhouse gas output associated with climate change, government officials said in a statement on Tuesday.

In Montana, geologists have targeted Kevin Dome, a subterranean rock formation in the north-central part of the state that stretches for 700 square miles (1,800 sq km) and has trapped naturally occurring carbon dioxide for millions of years, said Lee Spangler, director of the carbon project and associate vice president of research for the university.

Spangler said the formation featured porous rock that would admit gas pumped in from the surface, topped by nonporous rocks that should keep the gas contained.

Development of the site, which includes drilling of injection wells, should be under way this week, with storage of the gas slated to begin in two years.

Scientists intend to monitor carbon dioxide levels to ensure the gas was not escaping and to gauge its effects on surrounding rock and water, Spangler said.

While a million tons of carbon dioxide represents just a fraction of the 7 billion tons the US emits annually, the Montana site has the potential to store as much as a billion tons of the gas, he said.

The Montana-based project is not the largest of its kind but is vital to assessing whether such regional capture facilities are viable, Spangler said.

"The estimates of storage capacity are very generous," he said of the dome.

With the high cost of converting carbon dioxide to other uses, research in recent years has focused on capturing and storing heat-trapping gas emissions, Spangler said.

The Montana project relies on $67m in federal funds and $18m in matching funds provided mostly by private partners. Those include oil and gas exploration firms like Vecta Oil and Gas, SR2020 Inc and Schlumberger.

Carbon capture and sequestration projects have not proved viable for public utilities in the absence of economic incentives, Spangler said.

Earlier this month, American Electric Power Co, one of the nation's largest power plant operators, cited the government's failure to put a price on emissions in its decision to shelve plans to capture carbon dioxide output from a coal-burning plant in West Virginia.

By Peter Ker, Sydney Morning Herald

Hostile regulators are forcing Australian developers of underground coal gasification technologies to look offshore, according to the chief executive of Cougar Energy.

The warning from Len Walker came as Queensland's Environment Department laid three charges against Cougar Energy for breaches at its UCG facility near Kingaroy.The department claims Cougar failed to properly install a gas well properly, released benzene and other contaminants into the groundwater and was slow in reporting the problems to authorities.

The charges could result in large fines and are the latest safety concerns to hit a sector whose future is in the balance amid a review by a government-appointed scientific panel.

Dr Walker said Cougar did not believe it had caused environmental harm and was taking legal advice.

UCG players have long complained that Australia's booming coal seam gas sector has not faced the same scrutiny from regulators that UCG has.Dr Walker said regulators had played down the significance of recent benzene leaks from CSG operators. ''The government is putting significant constraints on the development of the UCG industry and the reasons for that are only known to them,'' he said. 

A moratorium on new UCG projects is in force and Dr Walker said it was no coincidence that the companies conducting UCG trials in Queensland - Cougar, Linc Energy and Carbon Energy - had increased their focus on overseas interests.

The Pakistan government agreed to release PKR 900m for the pilot project to generate 100MW of electricity through gasification of underground coal in the Thar Desert.

The government had allocated only PKR 5m in the 2011 to 2012 Budget for the project.

Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh finance minister of Pakistan said

this will be the first electricity generation through Thar coal in Pakistan. “Companies from Australia and the UK will be ready to invest in Thar coal power generation if we succeed.”

"Financing the development of clean coal technologies should not only come from the side of the government because the government doesn't have the money," he added.

"Energy companies should know that if they want to survive in the market and withstand the competition they must also interest themselves in this area."

Kraszewski said Polish power utilities would soon feel the effects of the EU's emissions trading system because from 2013 they would have to start paying for part of their emissions allowances and from 2020 they will have to pay for them all.

"Each of the managers must be able to plan and predict what will happen with their companies after 2020. They must find answers to what role biofuel, clean coal technology and wind power will play in the production of energy," he said.

Poland has been considering two clean coal projects, one to capture and store CO2 from the soon-to-be-commissioned 858 MWe unit at the country's largest power plant, the 4.4 GW capacity Elektrownia Belchatow, and a 309 MWe polygeneration unit at Tauron's Elektrownia Blachownia plant in Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Upper Silesia, which will produce syngas as well as power.

Polska Grupa Energetyczna which owns Elektrownia Belchatow has said the CCS project is currently uneconomic and will not proceed without substantial outside funding. One of the partners in the polygeneration project, chemical producer, Zaklady Azotowe Kedzierzyn, which was to have taken syngas from the plant, has withdrawn from the investment.

"Really there are problems with the project in Kedzierzyn-Kozle but from what I know the CCS project in Belchatow will be carried out," Kraszewski said.

Adam Easton, platts.com

Congratulations to Gazprom promgaz OAO, the Russia-based company engaged in the provision of design and research, engineering, testing and other services for the gas, heating and electric power market, which has notched up 60 years working in the UCG sector.

For more than 50 years, five pilot industrial UCG stations were operating in the USSR and the Russian Federation. During the UCG stations operation over 15m tons of coal were gasified and 50 bn m³ of UCG gas produced.

Gazprom promgaz has accumulated much practical and engineering experience of UCG implementation in diverse conditions. “Today Gazprom promgaz has developed a new controllable UCG method. This method envisages UCG wide-scale industrial implementation with gas annual production output of 3-5 or more bn m³ and simultaneous operation of a few hundred injection and gas production wells,” says Deputy General director, Alexey Zorya.

Australian listed Wildhorse Energy expects to float on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in early August. The company has lodged its pre-admission announcement with the LSE today (Wed July 6).

Wildhorse is focused on applying underground coal gasification(UCG) technology to convert coal into syngas and then selling the syngas to power stations as a gas feedstock. Its flagship project is Mecsek Hills in Hungary.

The Queensland government has laid charges against a mining company for allegedly contaminating groundwater with cancer-causing chemicals, says the Sydney Morning Herald.

The state's Department of Environment and Resource Management has laid charges against Cougar Energy after a gas well ruptured at a site south of Kingaroy where the company was trialling underground coal gasification.

DERM's acting director-general Terry Wall said in a statement Cougar Energy has been charged with three counts of breaching conditions of its environmental authority under the Environmental Protection Act 1994.

It is alleged Cougar failed to properly install the gas extraction well leading to contaminants being leaked into groundwater in March last year.

It's also alleged the company failed to notify DERM of the contamination as soon as reasonably possible.

Mr Wall said the cancer-causing chemical benzene and toxic chemical toluene were detected in monitoring bores on the site in May last year.

"Cougar received confirmation of these sample results on 7 June 2010 but failed to notify the department until June 30 2010.

"We take the protection of our environment and our communities very seriously and any company that wants to do business in Queensland must meet strict environmental obligations."

If proven guilty, the company could face a maximum penalty of more than $830,000 for breaching any environmental condition.

Mr Wall said Cougar constructed a gas production well in October 2009.

A blockage and rupture of the well occurred shortly after Cougar began operating in March last year, he said.

UCG involves drilling a well into a coal seam burning the coal and extracting the product gas.

The government has only permitted three trial UCG projects and has appointed an expert scientific panel to assess whether there should be any further UCG projects.

Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/mining-company-charged-over-gas-well-rupture-20110701-1guxb.html#ixzz1R8PFvpDQ

By Sally Bakewel, Bloomberg

China Energy Conservation & Environmental Protection Group, a state-owned project developer, will build a $1.5 billion clean coal plant in Inner Mongolia with U.K.-based Seamwell International Ltd.

The companies agreed to collaborate on the electric power plant that’ll harvest its energy from gasified coal deep underground, the first commercial plant of its size in the world, according to a statement today from Seamwell.

The plant on the YiHe Coal Field will produce power by the end of 2014 or 2015, Matthew Idiens, president of Normanton, West Yorkshire-based Seamwell, said. It will generate 1,000MW of electricity for about 25 years.

The contracts for the accord were signed at a UK - China summit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

China is promoting cleaner energy to meet a 2020 goal of cutting the amount of carbon it emits per unit of economic output by 40% to 45% from 2005 levels as demand for power grows in the world’s biggest energy consumer market.

The project will drill to the seam of coal that is then ignited and injected with air, oxygen or steam to create synthesis gas. That will be pumped out and cleaned before being used by a combined cycle power plant at the surface. There are 280 billion tons of coal resources “stranded” in that region of Inner Mongolia, according to Seamwell.

“The intention is to build more power plants of a similar type, to roll the technology out onto additional coal fields,” Idiens said. “The technology is very scalable.”

The commercial plant will be fitted with carbon-capture technology that collects the emissions linked to climate change before combustion, then stores them permanently underground. This is a 50% saving on emissions when compared to a traditional coal-fired plant, the company said. Seamwell is owned by private investors, including Idiens, and financial institutions.

The Seamwell technical team include UCGA members, Wardell Armstrong and Imperial College, London

http://www.seamwell.com/index.html

.

From The Guardian: British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will meet for an Anglo-Chinese summit at Downing Street today designed to seal £1bn worth of bilateral contracts, including a raft of deals aimed at greening the industrial revolution transforming the Chinese economy at an unprecedented rate.

One of the centrepieces of the summit will be a multi-million pound commercial underground coal gasification deal secured by Seamwell International, a British company specialising in new clean coal technology.

The technology could release 280bn tonnes of coal in inner Mongolia, at a 20% reduction on the CO2 emissions of a traditional coal fired power station and 50% if carbon capture and storage technology is also utilised.

Wildhorse Energy has revealed the initial analysis of its flagship UCG project in Hungary confirms its “strong economic potential”.

Data produced by KPMG indicates the Mecsek Hills operation will produce “positive financial returns”, and also reveals that the rate of return increases significantly as production rises.

The market conditions over the medium to long term are also conducive to the ongoing success of the venture, according to the study.

Chief executive Matt Swinney said: “Early indications confirm the strong economic potential of the project and the value of UCG derived syngas as a feedstock for power stations.

“The results of the analysis also indicate the potential role of UCG within the wider European unconventional gas market where there is an abundance of stranded coal and highly favourable energy market dynamics.” 

The UCG project is being developed in two stages, with total output of more than 400 megawatts targeted. The gas will be used as a feedstock for power stations. - IBtimes.com

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has invited Czech Republic firms to invest in the coal sector in India. "Jaiswal.....invited the Czech companies to invest in Indian coal sector," according to an official release, says moneycontrol.com.

Jaiswal, who met Czech Republic Trade and Industry Minister Martin Kocourek on Monday, also explored the scope for technical co-operation between both the nations in the field of coal mining.

"This included deep coal mining, lignite mining and clean coal technologies covering the areas of coal mine methane extraction, underground coal gasification etc," the statement said.

The high-level delegation also proposed technical co-operation in manufacture of mining machinery for both underground and lignite mining. "The Czech industry minister evinced interest in associating his country with the coal mining in India," the statement added.

Mining Weekly reports that India’s oldest coal miner, Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) is focusing on increasing productivity from existing underground mines by at least 30% to cope with dwindling growth opportunities in its mining hinterland.

It is also looking to diversify into power generation. It will look at projects to construct coal pithead-based power generating plants, either through joint ventures or on its own.

To pursue other diversification projects, SCCL has entered into an agreement with Carbon Energy, headquartered in Queensland, Australia, to collaborate in technologies for surface coal gasification, coal-bed methane and underground coal gasification projects.

"Urgent action" is needed by the government on its low carbon energy policies, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

In its assessment of the coalition government's first year in office, the industry body said there is still much work to be done in ensuring energy security.

Director general John Cridland described energy market reform as the "single most pressing issue for businesses" and expressed concerns about the impact of any form of carbon tax.

"The new carbon floor price cannot be allowed to compromise the competitiveness of our heaviest energy users, and must not become little more than a tax raiser," he said.

In its report the CBI also stressed the need for a full low-carbon heating plan to be put in place, although the announcement of the Renewable Heat Incentive as a "positive step".

However, it claimed investor confidence in carbon capture and storage projects was being eroded by delays in awarding demonstration projects.

The CBI has also previously said it is uncertain whether the investment needed to build the low carbon infrastructure required to support the low carbon economy will be found.  

Cougar Energy / Kingaroy - Australia