resource stocks magazine ucg article

OK... here are some snippets from the latest article in Resource Stocks Magazine. (Its a big article so I wont type everything out).

PLENTY OF ENERGY IN NEW COAL TECHNOLOGY

Australian companies are setting the benchmark for the rest of the world as new technologies are being developed to utilise underground resources of coal.
The steps being achieved are big, but more importantly, are capable of leaving minimal enviromental footprints.
A popular line amongst some of the doubters of clean coal is that the only way to make it clean is to wash it.
But as times change so do technologies and as usual with technological advances it does take some people a bit longer than others to catch on.
Huge advances have been made, particularly in Queensland, in coal seam gas(CSG) and underground coal gasification(UCG) over the last decade.

*CSG only paragraphs missing*

To most people CSG and UCG are the same.They both utilise coal in-situ;that is they don't mine it in the traditional manner of digging an enormous hole in the ground.
The two however, are completely different and asking a CSG producer about its UCG project, or vice versa, would be met with either cold indifference or a warm reminder to do your homework.

*CSG only paragraphs missing*

UCG does exactly waht it says.
The operation is run remotely from the surface and the coal is extracted by means of gasification rather than convential mechanical excavation mining.
this means, like CSG, it also has none of the usual associated enviromental impacts.
UCG heats the coal underground and converts it into synthesis gas(syngas), which is then brought to the surface where it can be used for electricity production or converted to liquid form to produce a variety of fuels.
This ois achieved by injecting oxidising gases such as oxygen,steam or air down a borehole into a gasification chamber in the coal.
Chemical reations convert the coal into a gas, and the UCG syngas is extracted through another borehole.
The gas is cleaned on the surface and processed for its specific use at that site.
The UCG gas to liquids technology is attracting a lot of international attention due to its potential as a replacement for petroleum-based transport fuels.
It has the advantage of being able to produce ultra clean burning fuels that are both low sulphur and low aromatics.
It also offers fuel security for countries such as Australia, USA, China and India that are rich in coal deposits, but poor in oil reserves.
Queensland-based UCG play Carbon Energy has developed the world's first commercial scale,oxygen injected UCG facility at Bloodwood creek, approximately 50 kilometres west of dalby in South West Queensland.
"We have been producing syngas in commercial quantities at Bloodwood Creek since October last year" Carbon Energy commercial manager Peter Swaddle told RESOURCESTOCKS.
Although syngas is the only product produced by the bloodwood creek facilitl, Swaddle said it could be used in a number of different applications.
"CNX's syngas production methodology and the gas compisition derived, enables us to produce a number of commercially attractive products," he said.
Apart from using it to produce electricity through a gas turbine Swaddle said Carbon can seperate out methane and produce synthetic natural gas, which will be its next project after the current power project.
"We can produce transport fuels similar to those being produced by Linc Energy, and syngas can be used as a feedstock manufacture ammonia for fertiliser and explosives," he continued.
"Additionally,syngas can produce methanol,which is also a feedstock,replacing propylene sourced from oil,for a new generation of methanol to polyolefin technologies, producing a variety of plastics such as polypropylene.
There is something of a coal rush on in QLD at the moment as companies set themselves up as CSG and UCG operators.
All this activity is seeing an intriguing tussle emerging as these two, relatively new,technologies both strive to become the number one newage coal enterprise.

*missing paragraphs talking about the overlapping tenement issues*

Swaddle basically agreed with Quinn saying Carbon Energy felt that the two industries could operate successfully together in adjacent tenements-but not simultaneously in the same tenement.
"However, it is certainly possible for UCG and CSG to operate in the same areas sequentially; that is UCG operates first and CSG operates afterwards.
"We see a great opportunity for UCG and CSG companies to optimise the development of their respective resources through cooperation in a range of development and production areas including sharing exploration drilling results, coordinated and staged development of production volumes as well as ground water management."
As both forms of new coal technology assert themselves on the Australian, and eventually world, stage it will be interesting to watch if they both can play nicely together.

The end.



Phoarrrrr.... I'm done typing.

LM