here is one more extract from an article to dispel the hippies...

here is one more extract from an article to dispel the hippies fears.

""The most recent successful UCG project has been the Chinchilla Program in Queensland, Australia which was operated by the Canadian Company, Ergo Energy. Plant construction began in late 1999 and involved the drilling of 9 production wells into a 30 ft. coal seam at a depth of approximately 500 ft. The project ran for a period of 28 months and gasified 38,000 tons of coal to produce 3 Bcf of gas. This gas had an energy value of about 135 btu/scf at a temperature of 300 degrees centigrade and a pressure of 145 psi. The gas was used to generate electricity using large turbines at a cost of approximately $0.02 per kilowatt hour.

Ergo Energy drilled 20 monitoring wells on their site and reported no environmental problems, including no groundwater contamination, no subsidence and no surface contamination. Ergo’s main principle in containing groundwater contamination is to conduct the process such that the gasification pressure is slightly less than the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid in the coal seam and surrounding strata. This creates a pressure gradient directed towards the gasifier. As a result, no flow from the gasifier to the surrounding is allowed, thus preventing the loss of valuable product as well as the contamination of the underground environment.""