The Underground Coal Gasification Process
Underground coal gasification (UCG) is the in-situ gasification of coal in the seam. It is achieved by injecting oxidants, gasifying the coal and bringing the product gas to surface through boreholes drilled from the surface. The gas is used for power generation, industrial heating or as chemical feedstock.UCG Engineering Ltd has recently undertaken reviews of the technilogy and provided designs of underground configurations for demnonstration and commercial applications.
UCG was first developed as a large-scale gas production process in the 1960's and recently trial schemes have been evaluated in many other countries including China, India Australia, South Africa, the USA and the UK. The revival of interest in UCG is a direct result of improved technology, security of supply and a realisation that gas from underground coal gasification offers substantial cost reductions for production and CO2 capture.
Reviews of the technology, field trials and assessments of the potential resources for UCG have been undertaken in most coal producing countries. At least half a dozen coal fields and basins around the world are the subject of studies, pre-commercial trials and it is known that project expenditure on UCG has increased markedly in 2007.
| Latest News
date 01-12-2011
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UCGE Partner and Steering Group Chairman, HUGE2, EU RFCS Project extending original HUGE project (Sep11)
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Subcontractor to the EU RFCS Project UCG-CCS investigating CO2 storage in UCG cavities (Jul10 to present UCG Engineering has contracts for development projects in Australia, Eastern Europe, UK, and India
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Board Director of CLean global Energy for two years (Oct09 - Nov11)
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Recent presentations have included the Zeus Conference Houston May2011, UCG International Conference HUGE Presentation Mar 2011, UCGA Training Course (Mar 2011), HSE Workshop on UCG Mar10, Article on UCG Fuellers Magazine Jun10 UCG Summit (October 09),
- Chapter on UCG in Advance Power Plant & Materials, Woodhead Publishing, Mar 2009
- Steering The EC project to investigate hydrogen production from underground gasification (HUGE) is now in its final stages and deu for completion on time in July 2010. We are involved as EC contractors for the study and chair the Steering Group.
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