ucg - hungary dept of geology

New article about UCG on the Hungarian Department of Geology website

http://www.elgi.hu/en/node/566

Geological premises of the Underground Coal Gasification UCG, and its coal resources potential estimation in Hungary

The underground coal gasification UCG is getting more and more important as an alternative energy source in Hungary to replace a part or enhance the capacity requirements of the country from domestic sources. The goal of the project is to estimate the economically unmineable coal resources potential of Hungary from the technological point of view. Published reports and experiences of international demonstration projects will help us to develop a geological and environmental requirement system for the selection of possible coal formations and basins. As a result of the basin selections information packages will be performed.

In Hungary coal resources registration bases on the conventional technological requirements of underground and open pit mining technologies. Those coal resources, which are not economical for conventional mining might be suitable for carbon dioxide storage, CCS or UCG. This later one could be utilised in much deeper intervals than the conventional underground mining. During the UCG the same chemical reactions took place, which are well known in coal gasification processes on the surface, where the carbon content of coal reacts with restricted oxygen and steam providing methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen. To fulfil the technological requirements of UCG it is necessary to make the re-evaluation of former coal explorations.

In the UCG 0.5-30 m thick coal seams with long-distance traceable continuity is required, where two boreholes are used as the injection and exploitation points in the technology. Air or oxygen is injected with steam into the coal seam after ignition, which provides the energy for the chemical reaction, while methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide is produced on the exploitation point of the couple drillings.