Syngas (CO and H2) is a very good gas for the basis of power, fuels and chemicals production of all sorts. You can literally make almost any product you want from diesel to methanol, to plastics, to fertilisers, to the clothes you wear etc.
However, I think for the moment UCG syngas is most readily suitable for power production. Why? 1. Well UCG syngas is quite dirty compared to syngas from surface coal gasification and especially steam reforming of natural gas. So it requires a lot of processing to make it clean enough for chemical synthesis applications. 2. the reliability of syngas production rates/composition is still an uncertainty from UCG at large scale. Power production is more tolerant of compositional changes than chemical synthesis applications so making this a most appropriate starting point.
Over time if power production is successful then the chemical synthesis applications - like GTL, methanol, ammonia will follow. Its interesting that MEE and LNC and pursuing chemical synthesis from the start, which might be either a fantastic gamble if it works or a disaster if it doesn't. The CXY approach is more conservative and has good chance to succeed fairly rapidly.
CXY Price at posting:
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