Its proponents say that underground coal gasification combined with carbon capture could allow the continued use of coal — without unacceptable emissions. Kurt Kleiner looks at whether the technology is likely to live up to expectations.
IAN BRITTON
Early next year a small Canadian company plans to start producing fuel by gasifying underground coal and extracting the combustible gas out of a well. It's an old trick with a new twist — the company will remove half of the carbon dioxide from the gas, creating a fuel that it says will be cheaper and cleaner than natural gas.
Laurus Energy of Montreal is one of a handful of companies around the world now exploring the technology, called underground coal gasification (UCG). Proponents claim that when UCG is combined with carbon capture and sequestration, it is potentially the most efficient and cost-effective way to use the world's vast coal reserves without emitting unacceptable amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
"It's an extremely attractive technology both from an economic standpoint and a carbon management standpoint," says Julio Friedmann, a geologist and the head of the carbon management program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Though there are no operational sites with both technologies yet, combined they could meet the twin grand challenges of reducing dependency on foreign oil and slashing greenhouse gas emissions, said scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held February 14–18 in Boston.
More........ look: http://www.nature.com
IAN BRITTON
Early next year a small Canadian company plans to start producing fuel by gasifying underground coal and extracting the combustible gas out of a well. It's an old trick with a new twist — the company will remove half of the carbon dioxide from the gas, creating a fuel that it says will be cheaper and cleaner than natural gas.
Laurus Energy of Montreal is one of a handful of companies around the world now exploring the technology, called underground coal gasification (UCG). Proponents claim that when UCG is combined with carbon capture and sequestration, it is potentially the most efficient and cost-effective way to use the world's vast coal reserves without emitting unacceptable amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
"It's an extremely attractive technology both from an economic standpoint and a carbon management standpoint," says Julio Friedmann, a geologist and the head of the carbon management program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Though there are no operational sites with both technologies yet, combined they could meet the twin grand challenges of reducing dependency on foreign oil and slashing greenhouse gas emissions, said scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held February 14–18 in Boston.
More........ look: http://www.nature.com
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