With declining mineable coal reserves and the ever increasing global energy demand, Underground Coal Gasification is a resurging technology that promises to deliver on these challenges. On Thursday 28th August the Fossil Fuel Foundation will host the Underground Coal Gasification’s 3rd Conference at Glen Hove Conferencing Centre with local and international presenters from Australia, Poland and the UK shedding light on the role and future of UCG.

The Department of Energy stated ‘South Africa's indigenous energy resource base is dominated by coal. About 80% percent of South Africa's primary energy needs are provided by coal.’  Whichever way you look at it for South Africa, coal is still king and electricity is still in short supply. Hence the need to develop environmentally friendly and cost effective technologies like UCG to ensure that this energy supply can be exploited to the full. The UCG process enables efficient production of energy and chemicals from coal, without the need for conventional mining operations, stockpiling, reclaiming and transportation.  Another advantage is that no coal is brought to the surface and not only is environmental impacts greatly reduced, but there is no risk of underground casualties. Underground Coal Gasification takes place in undisturbed and often unmineable coal seams and is the gasification of coal in-situ by remotely operating a series of boreholes.  Air or a combination of oxygen, air and/or steam is injected into the gasification panel within the coal seam. The coal is then heated and controlled reactions convert solid coal into product gas, known as ‘syngas’, which is extracted at the surface.  This can be used as fuel for heating, power generation, hydrogen production, or the manufacturing of key liquid fuels such as diesel fuel or methanol.

For this conference, Sydney lawyer Neil Scott, explains the challenges of Australian legislation.  “The mining and petroleum industry in Australia is increasingly portrayed as being in conflict with other land uses – arable farming, viticulture, livestock production, urban development........ This in fact is part of a larger global phenomenon, and the reconciliation of these competing land uses is one of the great challenges facing the global community. It is not an “either” / “or” question – food or energy. We need both, just as we need clean reliable water, pharmaceuticals, steel, fertilisers, industrial metals, transportation – the list is almost endless.”
Julie Lauder, CEO of the UCG UK describes the potential worldwide benefit. “Operating at depths of up to 2000 metres UCG can be applied onshore and off, enabling access to much of the world’s unrecoverable coal. There is now greater understanding of hydrogeology, gasification techniques, carbon capture etc and you have a technology that is viable for large scale development“.  Russia, Bulgaria, Ireland, Turkey, Slovakia and Indonesia are some of the countries that have identified sites suitable for commercial UCG.

South Africa may produce the world’s first commercial UCG operator supplying electricity for base load power supply in the Free State province in the central part of the country. Potential target areas for the establishment of a UCG project have been identified in the Theunissen vicinity on a coalfield of more than 300 square kilometres. The coal resource is at an inferred level of 1000 million tons. “This environmentally friendly technology will transform the face of coal mining and electricity production in South-Africa” says Africary’s Johan Brand, referring to his and Dr Johan van Dyk’s presentation.

Over the last ten years exploration in the deeper parts of the Karoo Basin has confirmed that there are significant deep resources of coal which can be developed using UCG technology.  The Coal Research Group of the North-West University has dedicated laboratories and strong relations with national and international role players. Fundamental coal science, gasification understanding and experience will form the foundation for a UCG development program focusing on R&D in this field of coal science.

The UCG III Conference will discuss and evaluate the latest trends and developments in underground coal gasification, ensuring that the most appropriate and environmentally sensitive techniques are promoted.  We would like to invite you to join us on the 28th August and form part of the debate on UCG.