More UCG In Queensland  

Mining Era has a post on another UCG hopeful in Queensland - Carbon Energy Plans To Set The World On Fire.

Underground conversion of coal to gas, in a safe and profitable way, has been one of the mining world’s “Holy Grail” pursuits for the past 70 years, without much success. In the next few weeks the latest attempt to prove the commercial viability of underground coal gasification (UCG) will reach a critical point as a small Australian company, with impeccable connections, “fires” its first substantial trial. In theory, Carbon Energy will burn a deeply-buried coal seam to liberate a range of gases at its Bloodwood Creek test site in Queensland, some gas will be suitable for power generation and some suitable as a feedstock for ammonia production. If successful, investors in the company will be delighted, especially the two biggest shareholders, the Australian Government’s science agency and the country’s biggest fertiliser producer, Incitec Pivot.

It’s the presence of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSRIO) with its 18.6 per cent stake in Carbon Energy, and Incitec with its 11.2 per cent, which adds credibility to a process which has its fair share of doubters, and sets the company apart from two other UCG experiments in Australia. Common objections to UCG includes fears of groundwater contamination from burning coal underground, high levels of carbon dioxide being released and the conventional concerns about risks associated with all forms of new technology.

Carbon Energy, chief executive, Andrew Dash, dismisses those concerns as inaccurate and misinformed. He told an investment conference in Queensland last week that rising energy prices and environmental concerns created a perfect climate for UCG. “Our aim is to produce clean energy and chemical feedstock from UCG syngas (synthetic gas).” he said. “We are able to extract the energy in coal without the environmental effects associated with coal mining.” He told the conference that the technology had been developed by the CSIRO, and acquired from the science agency, which emerged from the deal as the biggest single shareholder in Carbon Energy.

Dash used a graph to claim that the energy extraction from UCG is close to double that from actually mining the coal and more than 10 times the energy from coal-seam gas with the added energy coming from the way UCG used the methane, hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the coal rather than the coal itself, or the coal-seam gas on its own. “What we’re doing is based on 10 years of research,” Dash said. “That has enabled us to choose the perfect site for our first major trial.”

Bloodwood Creek is located approximately 150 kilometres west of Brisbane in the coal-rich Surat Basin. Costing around A$20 million the project consists of drilling a series of boreholes down to coal seams 200 metres beneath the surface. The holes start vertically and then run horizontally along the coal seam. Going down one borehole is a mix of oxygen and steam. This is ignited at one end of the coal panel and allowed to burn in a controlled manner, giving off hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and carbon dioxide, which are returned to the surface for collection and separation. Incitec Pivot is keen to get its hands on some of the gases to make ammonia which will be used to make fertiliser and explosives for the coal-mining industry. Nearby power plants are interested in the methane to generate electricity and a speciality chemical firm, LyondellBasell Industries is interested in building a methanol plant using UCG products.

Investors have remained strong supporters of Carbon Energy in a tricky market. The company, which is the reincarnated shell of a once well-known gold explorer, Metex, snatched its first UCG headline on April 8 when (as Metex) it reported receipt of Queensland Government approvals to conduct the 100-day Bloodwood Creek trial burn with the aim of producing one petajoule of “syngas” a year.