Underground Coal Gasification

2010-01-31T16:08:00.003-08:00

ucga UPDATE

Quarterly Newsletter for Members of the UCG Association

ISSUE 15, January 2010

UCG Partnership

5th International Conference on

Underground Coal Gasification

Deloitte, New Street Square, London

23rd -24th March 2010.

Drinks Reception and Networking Dinner at The Tower Hotel

Hear from the world’s leading UCG experts and foremost

practioners.

The definitive conference on Underground Coal Gasification.

Our flagship two day event will reflect the increased level of global interest, activity, research and studies

plus news on all the existing and emerging UCG projects. We address the relevant issues and challenges

facing the UCG community and provide the only high-level forum for exchange of information and expertise.

The full programme has now been finalised and is available at:

www.ucgp.com/conference or contact Julie Lauder, julie.lauder@ucgp.com

This event offers unparalleled networking for all in UCG and the Networking Dinner is a must for

everyone attending.

Workshop Day

A full programme of topics including: UCG – CCS,IEA Clean Coal UCG Report, Coiled Tube Drilling Techniques,

Hydrogeology, UCG Chamber Design, Impact of UCG at depths Review of UCGA/UCGP.

Conference Day

The UCGP Conference provides the most up to date reports on UCG projects and studies from around the

world, and the opportunity to network with the most prominent in the UCG community. Topics include:

Bloodwood Creek update, ENN UCG project, UCG in Botswana, Syngas Resource, Funding and Legal

aspects of UCG.

Speakers include: Prof. Efrim Kreynin, Gazprom. Dr.John Topper, IEA Clean Coal Centre, Dr Cliff Mallett,

Carbon Energy. Dr Elizabeth Burton, LLNL. Mike Fowler, Clean Air Task Force, Peter Dryburgh, Wardell

Armstrong, Dr Feng Chen, ENN China. Lionel Boillot, EU. Dr. Alexander Kronimus, TNO, Peter Sallans,

Liberty Resources, Dr Shaun Lavis, Clean Coal.

The Two Day Conference & Workshop is free to all Members wishing to

attend - but you must register to secure a place.

After many requests from Members and conference attendees we will be holding our First Networking

Dinner. The cost of the dinner, which includes wine is £100.00 per head. Pre dinner drinks and canapés

at a private reception in Tower Hotels XI, with stunning views of Tower Bridge, followed by a Three Course

Dinner, Coffee, Petit Fours, VAT is also included.

Places are limited to 100 so book early – non conference attendees

welcome.

Not a member? Join Today! If you or one of your colleagues would

like to join us we offer not only the chance to add your voice to a

growing number working in the same sector and the opportunity

to engage in projects at an early stage.

Conference Drinks Reception

and Dinner

Tower Hotel, London

23rd March 2010

Conference Accommodation

The Tower Hotel, London – *Book soon

UCGP have again secured special rates* for conference delegates at this 4 star London Hotel, situated

close to the Conference & Workshop venue, with stunning views of some of London’s most historic landmarks,

prices are excellent and £20.00 lower than last year! Plus no VAT increase

Prices: Per night.

Deluxe Rooms: £155.00 inclusive of VAT and English breakfast

Executive Rooms at £185.00 inclusive of VAT and English breakfast

Premier Executive Rooms at £205.00 inclusive of VAT and English breakfast

There will be a £10 supplement for double occupancy to cover the second breakfasts

http://www.guoman.com/the-tower/

Event Media Sponsors: We are delighted to be supported by these

leading industry publications.

Hart Energy Publishing is one of the leading information providers in the energy sector. Hart publishes

GasificationNews your best source for comprehensive, up-to-the-minute news, insight and analysis in

the rapidly converging arena of GTL, CTL, BTL, IGCC and the chemicals markets. www.worldfuels.com/gn

Tradelink Publications Ltd is a publisher of leading journals for the mining industries. Publications

include Mining & Quarry World (quarterly journal for the mineral extraction industries),

Coal International (bi-monthly publication for the coal mining industry) and the

International Guide to the Coalfields (annual directory of coal mines worldwide.)

www.quarryworld.co.uk

IEA - CCC REPORT: “UNDERGROUND COAL GASIFICATION”

In September, the IEA Clean Coal Centre released its intensively-researched report on UCG, written by Gordon Couch. Although this

was published a month before the UCGP October Newsletter was circulated, it was not given due prominence, for which we are now

making amends. This is a valuable reference and essential reading, particularly for the rapidly-increasing circle of people becoming

interested in the huge potential of UCG. Four pages of well-argued and balanced conclusions analyse the stage of commercial

application and the hurdles which remain to be cleared, in its widespread application.

CCC works to high standards of factual proof, and Gordon has recorded his frustration that, notwithstanding the co-operation from

numerous sources, many of them associated with UCGP, he found it difficult to find information on some developments which met the

criteria for full incorporation in the report. Nevertheless, it is a 129-page encyclopaedic reference on the technology and development

of UCG, published at a very appropriate point in time, when evaluation and application of the process is taking off all round the world.

With the rate of development of UCG, the reporting of current activities is a snapshot in time, and it will be in the interests of all

connected with UCG to ensure that CCC are made aware of progress, for incorporation in any future update of the report.

Reference: ISBN 978-92-9029-471-9, Underground Coal Gasification, Gordon R. Couch, CCC/151, July 2009. Obtainable from sales@

iea-coal.org Please note: Dr John Topper, Director of the IEA CCC will be presenting an overview of this report at our event in March.

Training Courses and

Workshops

This is an area of real focus for us this year, as

we need to ensure that many more understand

the technical and logistical aspects of UCG.

Training: We intend to run another week long

residential basic UCG course but are also keen to

work with others on specific courses targeted at one

aspect of UCG, such as Hydrogeology, Site selection

and so on.

Workshops: Again this is an area of growth, not

only as an addition at conference events but for

those responsible for the planning and legislation

of emerging energy technologies. If you wish to

attend a training course or would like us to run an in

house workshop for your colleagues and staff please

contact us.Email:info@ucgp.com

New Members

UCGA warmly welcome the following new members:

EMIS Ltd, Sofia, Bulgaria

Poltegor Instytut, Wroclaw, Poland

Hunting Energy Services Ltd, Aberdeen

Meerkat Energy Pty. Ltd, Sydney, Australia

Donald Perreira, Granherne Ltd

Underground Resources Innovation Network,

Japan

Why not join UCGA?

If you or one of your colleagues would like to join

us we offer not only the chance to add your voice

to a growing number working in the same sector

and the opportunity to engage in projects at an

early stage. For more details see membership

costs and benefits at the end of this newsletter.

News from Around the World

AUSTRALIA

Carbon Energy confirms UCG syngas reserves

Angie Tomlinson,Thursday, 10 December 2009

CARBON Energy says independent testing of its underground

coal gasification syngas reserves at the Bloodwood Creek site

in Queensland’s Surat Basin show the site will support a power

station and ammonia and synthetic natural gas plants for the

next 15 years.

Carbon Energy Limited in Final Stages of Australia’s

First UCG Syngas Power Station

Australia-based Carbon Energy Limited is in the final stages of

constructing its 5 MW power station which will be powered by

syngas produced from its underground coal gasification (UCG)

facility at Bloodwood Creek in Queensland. This is an Australian

first for fuelling this type of power station with syngas.

The construction of the main power station facility is almost

complete and the gas engines have been successfully tested on

air. Heavy rain in the local area over has slowed progress and

this, combined with the start of the Christmas/New Year holiday

period, has pushed testing of the engines on gas into the first

few days of the New Year.

The completion date for the project remains scheduled for the

end of January 2010, with electricity flowing into the local grid

around the same time.In July this year, Carbon Energy signed an

off-take agreement with Ergon Energy, a Queensland Government

owned electricity provider, for electricity produced at this

facility. The contract is worth approximately A$2 million per year

and will represent the company’s first revenue from its UCG

activities.

Carbon Energy is also progressing with its Phase 2 project, the

construction of a larger, 20 to 25 MW power plant, which will

incorporate carbon capture and storage technology.

Carbon Energy’s unique approach to UCG is based on practical

experience in conducting UCG trials in the US and New Zealand.

It was further developed in a 10 year CSIRO research program

that combined the skills of its scientists in coal gasification, coal

mining engineering and sustainable environmental practices.

The result is a modular UCG design to produce high quality

syngas for large scale production

Residents air coal plant fears

By Sam Burgess, 8 December 09

Almost 50 Kingaroy residents in southern Queensland have

formed an action group to stop an underground coal

gasification plant near the town.Cougar Energy wants to build

a power station using fuel that is created by burning coal

underground.

Action group chairman Gary Tessman says their concerns about

water and air pollution have not been addressed. “The biggest

worry is what impact it has on underground water, because

you’re actually burning something underground that will affect

burning water and after the coal has burnt out ... there can be

residues and things left there plus subsidence that will cause

people’s water to be cut-off as well as actually pollutants in the

water,” he said.

Cougar Energy spokesman John Henderson says he is confident

the plant will not have a negative impact on the environment.”I

think we can give a guarantee that there’ll be no risk for this

pilot plant,” he said.”The work that we’re doing there is being

done under a very detailed environmental authority and that

requires ground emissions studies, air omissions studies, very

controlled studies with which we’re operating in.”

Worries aired over coal gasification dam

By Katherine Spackman, Posted Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:34am

AEDT

Cougar Energy says it is on track to ignite its underground coal

gasification operation at Kingaroy in southern Queensland by

February 2010.The company says siteworks are now

completed, major equipment is installed and power

infrastructure is well advanced.

It says a production dam built on site will be able to withstand

a one-in-50-year storm event without overflowing. But South

Burnett Mayor David Carter says the consultative committee he

chairs has concerns about the moisture content of the red soil

used in the dam.

“We’ve got a couple of questions still about the dam,” he said.

“How that is going to be monitored and the time it will take if

there is a leak and how long it will be detected’ “So there are

issues we’ve addressed already. The committee is working very

well to get a good relationship between the community and

Cougar.”

Power station study on target

22nd December 2009

SENIOR Cougar Energy staff are now concentrating on a

feasibility study program for the 400MW power station planned

to be built 10km south of Kingaroy.

Cougar Energy manager for underground coal gasification

John Henderson said the company was on track to completing

the study as well as recruiting a study team.

“We are 100 per cent on track to achieve both, with the expected

commissioning of the pilot plant early next year, the appointment

of Peter South to the position of operations manager

for the pilot plant and the recruitment of more outstandingly

talented people to fill key roles,” he said.

Linc finds coal target for gasification

The Australian, 5th November 2009

Linc Energy has announced that its drilling program in South

Australia has identified a coal mineralisation target of between

one billion and 1.3 billion tonnes that could be suitable for coal

gasification. The Brisbane-based group said the drilling had

intersected coal at depths between 200m and 230m with coal

seam thickness of 23m. “The coal deposit is at an ideal depth

for underground coal gasification and initial analysis confirms

that the coal properties and the geology of the overlying strata

are all well suited to host a world-scale UCG project,” Linc said

in a statement.

Clean Coal: Myth, Misnomer or Manifestly Real?

By Greg Peel.15/12/2009

The small US city of Rawlins is a gateway to the wilderness

of southern Wyoming. A few miles west of the city centre, at

the charmingly named locale North Knobs, development has

been underway since the 1980s on one of the few commercial

trials of underground coal gasification (UCG) technology in the

western world. To date, US$100m has been spent in preparation

of design and feasibility studies.

The site is owned by the US Williams Companies group, and

over twenty years the technological development of the project

has been conducted by energy consultant Raven Ridge

Resources, a team of world specialists in alternative energies

such as coal seam methane (CSM) and UCG. Raven has teamed

up with Energy Technology Partners LLC, which has developed

its own proprietary technology and catalysts based on the

Fischer-Tropsch coal-to-liquid process. This partnership exists

as InSitu Energy LLC, principals of which had previously

conducted the world’s first commercial scale oxygen injection

project on behalf of Gulf Oil - being the second test at the site.

Considering North Knobs to be a non-core project amongst

its other developments, Williams Energy Ventures has sold an

option to Australian-based company Energie Future to acquire

100% of the project. Energie Future is as yet unlisted.

Energie Future and InSitu Energy have formed a joint venture to

share in the licensing of the technology. As such, were Energie

Future to sell all or part of the North Knobs project to a major

corporate investor sometime in the future, the joint venture

would continue to receive royalty payments based on the

technology licence? Before the end of 2009, InSitu will finalise

the acquisition of a 10% equity stake in Energy Future.

Eneabba Gas completes coal definition drilling on

Sargon Tenements

Australian Proactive Investor. December 10, 2009

Australian energy company Eneabba Gas (ASX: ENB) has

wrapped up coal resource definition drilling over the first of the

Company’s ten Sargon Tenements in the Mid West region of

Western Australia.As outlined in an ASX announcement of

October 2009, this programme resulted in a JORC Code

compliant coal resource of 194 million tonnes. Since

completion of this programme, the Company has sought the

opinion of Xstract Mining Consultants in regards to the

Company’s JORC Code Resource Statement, recent

transactions related to projects offering underground coal

gasification potential and the positioning of the Company’s

coal resources relative to other UCG participants.

Based on Xstrata’s report, Eneabba will now be reviewing the

recommendations, so that the Company’s 2010 exploration

programme will achieve a more detailed UCG sampling within

E 70 / 2758, greater geological, geotechnical, hydrological and

UCG studies on the coals overburden, and surrounding country

rocks and the design of a strategic exploration programme for

the remaining Sargon Tenements. In discussing the relative

positioning of the Company’s coal resources relative to other

UCG participants, Eneabba notes a recent ASX release by

Cougar Energy.

Based on this announcement, Linc Energy, Carbon Energy and

Cougar Energy have implied A$/GJ (for 3P reserves) of A$0.02

to 0.09 per GJ, based on their Enterprise Value and implied

recoverable UCG reserves. In addition, offers of up to A$0.18/GJ

have recently been bid for at least two Australian UCG projects.

Eneabba Gas is focused on the development of the 168MW

gas-fired Centauri 1 Power Station on Company owned land

near Dongara in the Mid West of Western Australia. Eneabba

Gas proposes to market power from Centauri 1 to the fast

growing Mid West region of Western Australia.

Fuel cells and carbon capture combine for clean coal

breakthrough

Integrating underground coal gasification with hydrogen fuel

cells will revolutionise energy generation, predict Linc and AFC

Energy: Tom Young, BusinessGreen, 30 Dec 2009

Australian clean coal technology specialist Linc Energy and

British fuel cell firm AFC Energy have signed a major new

partnership, paving the way for a pioneering demonstration

project that the two companies believe could revolutionise the

coal industry.Under the deal, which was signed earlier this

month, Linc has been granted exclusive rights to test AFC’s fuel

cell technology in conjunction with underground coal

gasification techniques. The firms believe that combining

underground coal gasification techniques with hydrogen fuel

cell technologies will provide a significantly cleaner and cheaper

way of generating energy from coal than fitting standard

coal-fired power stations with costly CCS systems.

“The future of this concept is simply staggering,” said Peter

Bond, chief executive of Linc Energy. “It could easily be the

ultimate answer for clean coal power many of us are looking for,

and it’s only one or two years away from reality.” The exclusivity

agreement lasts for two years, though Linc can choose to

extend it if it invests £2.3m in AFC Energy stock. Under the

plans proposed by Linc Energy and AFC the resulting gases

would be mixed with steam to produce carbon dioxide and

hydrogen. The hydrogen would then be used to power the AFC

fuel cells, while the CO2 will be captured and injected back

underground. The fuel cells would then use the hydrogen to

produce electricity and heat, with distilled water the only side

product from the process.

AFC said that the cells will last 10 to 13 years and can be sited

anywhere, adding that for a 1,000MW power station they would

produce over 2.5bn litres of clean water a year.

Advocates of the technique argue that it is cheaper and less

environmentally damaging than mining, transporting and

burning coal in a standard coal-fired power plant and then

capturing the carbon emissions afterwards.

A spokesman for AFC said that with over 80 per cent of the

cost of planned CCS projects related to capturing the CO2, the

new process offered a cheaper alternative whereby the CO2 is

already captured and contained, ready for injection. Linc Energy

also argues that underground coal gasification can reach coal

fields that would be too expensive to mine traditionally,

potentially increasing the world’s reserves of accessible coal by

up to five times.

The AFC spokesman said that the technology had the potential

to revolutionise the coal industry, adding that both E.ON and

the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change both had a

“watching brief” on the proposed technique.”The vision is that

everyone switches to underground coal gasification using

hydrogen fuel cells instead of mining coal,” he said. “We think

it’s going to be a step change on a par with the internal

combustion engine.”

The project could also open up a new market for AFC, which

is already planning to deploy its fuel cells to take advantage of

hydrogen syngas produced by landfill sites and syngases

generated by conventional integrated gasification combined

cycle plants, which carry out a similar process to that proposed

by Linc Energy, but above the ground.

Metallica Minerals lodges MetroCoal IPO

prospectus

November 03, 2009

Metallica Minerals (ASX: MLM) has advised it has lodged the

MetroCoal Limited (MetroCoal) prospectus seeking to raise $10

million and list MetroCoal on the ASX in December 2009.

The MetroCoal IPO is consistent with Metallica’s strategy policy

of giving non-core assets within Metallica’s diversified

portfolio - their own commodity focused entity - a coal and

energy company, with its own management team, funding

capability and ASX listing.

Investment highlights of MetroCoal are: MetroCoal holds 100%

of extensive coal tenements covering approximately 4,000km²

in the Surat Basin region and has identified thermal coal

Exploration Targets totalling between 2.5 and 3.5 Billion tonnes

and expects to confirm these targets within the next two years

Projects include the 100% owned Juandah thermal coal project

area which has a 172Mt (149Mt inferred and 23Mt indicated)

resource and this area represents only 1.5% of MetroCoal’s

prospective coal tenements. This resource is based on just one

coal seam, the Macalister Upper Seam. The Macalister Coal

Seam package is continuous and correlateable over most of

MetroCoal’s tenements. The Macalister Upper Seam

generally has a thickness and continuity that is highly

prospective for longwall mining.MetroCoal’s suite of tenements

provides investors with excellent exposure to the increased

global and domestic demand for energy

In addition to conventional coal exploitation, MetroCoal

anticipates certain tenements will hold extensive thermal coal

seams deeper than 150m below surface, suited to Underground

Coal Gasification (UCG).MetroCoal’s Juandah Project area is

one of the few areas in Queensland that has no overlapping

gas tenure.

Canada

Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. Announces Third Quarter and

Nine Months Financial Results for the Period Ended

September 30, 2009

Canada NewsWire11/28/2009

Subsequent to the end of the third quarter, on October 1, the

Company announced, in conjunction with its joint venture

partner, Western Warner Oils Ltd. that it had acquired the

Petroleum and Natural Gas (P & NG) rights on one-half section

of its land in Drumheller, Alberta. The rights are from the surface

to the base of the Belly River zone. This is an important step for

the Company in the process to develop its Drumheller property,

as it enables it to move forward on the Underground Coal

Gasification (UCG) project that was announced in July of

this year

New technology headed to Springhill mine

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter Dec 24 – 2009

Stealth Ventures Ltd. of Calgary is teaming up with Clean Coal

Ltd. of Britain to try a new technology to get energy from an old

mine outside of Springhill.

Stealth and Clean Coal will try using underground coal

gasification technology to get coal bed methane from the mine,

the companies announced Wednesday. “We are really excited

and this is leading edge technology,” said Stealth’s CEO Derek

Krivak, in a telephone interview Wednesday. This agreement

marks the first time Clean Coal will use the technology in

Canada.

Underground coal gasification is a method of converting

deep-seam coal into a synthetic gas. It is a proven method

of converting the coal into a combustible fuel used for power

generation or as a feedstock for the manufacture of hydrogen,

chemicals or transportation fuels, the company said in a news

release. Before using the technology, the company is working

with the provincial government to receive regulatory approval

for its use, Mr. Krivak said.

“We’re still working with the Nova Scotia government looking at

the environmental impacts and other issue. We’re hoping to use

it by next spring or summer,” he said. The company is bullish on

using the technology on the 71,600-hectare Cumberland Basin,

which could contain 1.2 trillion cubic feet of coal bed methane

gas. Last year Stealth had a setback at the province’s first

onshore gas project.

The company spent $10-million on drilling three onshore wells

but damaged the rock trying to tap into the coal bed methane.

“This technology will address all of the concerns we had in the

previous wells,” said Mr. Krivak.

“There is no question that we feel there is tremendous potential

for the Cumberland Basin and that it was a matter of

applying the right technology to harness the resource. We

believe that (underground coal gasification) technology has

not only great applications for Nova Scotia but can play a bigger

picture in Canada’s energy supply strategy.”He said Nova Scotia

is examining the viability of such an industry for the province

from economic and environmental standpoints.

“We believe this is an exciting and commercially viable

development which can bring significant long-term benefit to

Nova Scotia,” Graham Chapman, Clean Coal chief operating

officer, said in a release.

Clean Coal specializes in underground coal gasification and is

developing projects in global markets including North America

and Europe. The United Kingdom Coal Authority has recently

awarded five licences to Clean Coal to develop offshore sites for

underground coal gasification.

Innovative technology to burn underground coal

seams

“Clean coal” system promises to separate CO2 from

clean-burning gas and sequester it back underground,

Tom Young, BusinessGreen, 24 Dec 2009

The Canadian government has awarded C$285m (£165m) to a

flagship “clean coal” gasification project that promises to burn

coal without extracting it from the ground. The nascent

technology, which is to be deployed by Canadian firm Swan

Hills Synfuels, aims to produce a gas that can be burned

cleanly above ground, generating energy from coal without the

need to dig it up.

The technology works by driving oxygen down to a coal seam

and igniting it. Under high pressures, the oxygen, coal, and

saline water react to form a gas that is about one third methane

and two thirds hydrogen, along with some carbon monoxide

and carbon dioxide. The gas is drawn to the surface via another

well, where the carbon monoxide is converted to hydrogen

and CO2, allowing the CO2 to be removed. Under the proposed

plans, the CO2 captured by the project will be used in the Swan

Hills area for enhanced oil recovery, increasing conventional oil

production in Alberta while permanently sequestering the CO2

underground. Meanwhile, the synthetic gas generated from 20

pairs of wells will be used to power a new 300MW gas-fired

power plant.

The C$1.5bn project will aim to reach depths of up to 1,400m,

deeper than previous underground gasification projects.

More than 500 full-time jobs are expected to be created from

the construction of the power plant, which will take three to four

years to complete. A further 85 full-time jobs will be needed to

operate the power plant. “There’s about $100 million worth of

work that has to happen before construction. A lot of that is

engineering in support of the project design. We will be

operating our demonstration facility on a sustained basis to

help in that design process,” Swan Hills Synfuels president

Doug Shaigec said.

Construction on the sites is set to begin in 2012 with production

starting from 2015. The power plant component of the project

will be built, owned and operated by an energy firm that is yet

to be selected. “This transformative project is a whole new way

to generate clean electricity, using Alberta’s vast, deep stranded

coal resources,” said Swan Hills Synfuels president Douglas

Shaigec. “We are using an innovative approach with proven

technologies to deliver secure electricity, with a quarter of the

emissions produced by coal-fired power generation today, and

just over half those of natural gas-fired generation.” Shaigec

said that in the long term, the economic viability of the project

would be boosted by a strong price on carbon emissions. “We’re

not too particular about how that takes form ultimately, so long

as we see a more level playing field [for] projects that practice

capture and storage of CO2,” he said. The Swan Hills project

will be the deepest in the world at 1.4 km. Construction starts

in 2012.

China

CGE to develop underground coal gasification

project in Mongolia

5th November 2009

Australia-based Clean Global Energy (CGE) is forming a joint

venture with Beijing Yusenjiayu Environmental Protection

Technology, Inner Mongolia Gu Xin Mining and Goldbridge

Clean Tech Energy to develop an underground coal

gasification project in Inner Mongolia, China. The partners

will invest USD400m in the venture and plan to raise funding

through a public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Synthesis gas (syngas) from the project is expected to be

supplied to Inner Mongolia Sukli Oil and Gas Development.

The project will be designed and operated by CGE, which will

hold a 35% controlling stake in the venture. Injection and

production wells will be drilled into Gu Xin’s 1.8bn-ton coal

deposit. Pressurised air will then be pumped into the coal seam

and the syngas will be extracted from the production well.

Cougar inks MoU for UCG projects in China and

Mongolia

Published Dec 15, 2009

Cougar Energy Limited has executed a Memorandum of

Understanding (MOU) with Direct Invest Pte Ltd, the Singapore

domiciled subsidiary of the Direct Invest Group, to establish

Cougar Direct Invest China Limited (CDIC) for the purpose of

developing Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) projects in the

People’s Republic of China and in Mongolia. CDIC will be 60%

owned by Cougar Energy and 40% owned by Direct Invest Pte

Ltd with equal board representation and voting rights.

The MOU envisages the establishment of special purpose

companies for each project identified for development, with the

funding to be sourced through individual equity raisings and

bank finance.

Both China and Mongolia possess vast coal resources and CDIC

will be seeking to build business relationships with the major

mining and exploration companies in both countries.

Direct Invest is chaired by Michael Dobbs-Higginson, who has

had a distinguished career as an investment banker and an

entrepreneur in Europe and Asia, as well as being a

non-executive chairman, director and/or advisor to various

public and private companies particularly in Asia. For a period

of six years he was Chairman of Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific and a

member of Merrill Lynch New York’s Global Capital Committee.

Prior to that, he held similar positions with Credit Suisse First

Boston. He is based in Singapore and is involved with a number

of international companies in their investments in the Asia

Pacific region.

Mr Dobbs-Higginson is directly involved in the identification

of projects for CDIC, and preliminary discussions with the first

Chinese company have been initiated by him. This company’s

core business is in clean energy and environmental protection

applications. It operates in 20 provinces in China, and provides

a range of services to the major coal mining companies in those

provinces.

Dr Len Walker, Managing Director of Cougar Energy,

commented, ‘The Chinese authorities have signalled their

intention to tackle the challenge of reducing emissions from

their coal mining operations. We believe that UCG technology is

at the forefront of producing both cleaner and cheaper energy

from such resources in long-term sustainable operations. There

are many prospective sites in both China and Mongolia which

are suitable for UCG development.’

‘CDIC has been founded to combine the complimentary talents

of the shareholders, and to ensure that projects in the region

are developed using a sound long-term strategy. We bring the

technical evaluation and project design and development skills

and combine this with Direct Invest’s ability to evaluate and

structure projects and its extensive network of contacts in China

and Mongolia’. ‘The development of projects via CDIC

represents a highly prospective and exciting growth opportunity

for Cougar Energy as we continue to expand our coal resources

and operating entities across the globe utilising the world’s

leading commercial UCG technology,’ said Dr Walker

Hungary

WildHorse Energy announces work on fast tracking

Mecsek Hills Gas Project

January 18, 2010 - WildHorse press release

International uranium company WildHorse Energy (ASX: WHE)

has announced a series of significant developments focussed

on fast tracking the Mecsek Hills Gas Project in Hungary.

The company made the statement in anticipation of the

completion of the Schemes of Arrangement to acquire Peak

Coal and its Mecsek Hills Project.

The Company has signed agreements to employ Johan Brand

as UCG Project Director and Peter van Vuuren as UCG Technology

Manager. Mr Brand is a highly experienced and recognised

leader in the field of coal gasification and UCG, while Mr van

Vuuren has extensive coal gasification and gas processing

experience. Both will be based in Hungary and will manage the

on‐ground development of the Mecsek The pair have gained

experience at Sasol, the world’s leading coal gasification

company. Meanwhile, an agreement has been signed to acquire

specialist UCG technology intellectual property from African

Carbon Energy, a South African UCG development company.

The agreements will form strategic alliances with CDE Process

and Aqua Alpha Drilling.

CDE is a key supplier of specialist process engineering services

to companies such as Sasol and Eskom (South Africa’s

electricity supplier) while Aqua Alpha is a specialist directional

drilling company, with both companies established by ex‐senior

Sasol management.

India

Clean coal tech gets leg-up from oil companies

Hindu Business Daily, Anil Sasi,Richa Mishra.New Delhi, Nov. 1

2009

India’s move to adopt clean coal technologies is making steady

progress through a collaborative effort, with Coal India Ltd (CIL)

getting much-needed support from its counterparts in the oil

sector — GAIL (India) Ltd and ONGC. CIL and GAIL are

collaborating to develop a surface coal gasification project at

Talcher coalfield in Orissa for production of ammonium nitrate

and urea. “The techno-economic feasibility report has already

been prepared. About 5.5 mtpa of coal from Mahanadi

Coalfields will be required for this project and a long-term

linkage of 5.5 mtpa is required from the Coal Ministry,” a CIL

official told Business Line. Last year, GAIL and CIL entered into

an agreement to set up the surface coal gasification project

for the production of synthesis gas to be used as feedstock for

fertiliser production.

GAIL had organised a study by Udhe India for examining the

potential of the project. It was estimated that the project will

consume 5,000 tonnes of coal a day to produce 7.76 mscmd

of synthesis gas (equivalent to 3,000 tonnes a day of ammonia)

to produce 3,500 tonnes of urea a day.CIL is also working with

ONGC for underground coal gasification projects. The two are

working on the development, operation and R&D activities. “We

are working on projects short-listed from 15 sites all over India

to prove the potential of the process,” an official said.

The technical expert for the venture is the Skochinsky Institute

of Mining of Russia. Underground coal gasification is an alternative

and supplementary energy source, which allows converting

un-mineable coal and lignite — which forms over 80 per cent

of India’s 300-billion-tonne reserves — into combustible gases

by gasifying the coal in-situ.

According to ONGC, environmental clearance for the first

underground coal gasification pilot site at Vastan, Gujarat,

has been obtained and its design has been firmed up. The pilot

project is expected to commence production next year.

Government to initiate coal gasification to mitigate

pollution, optimise coal production news

07 December 2009

As a measure to counter environment pollution and at the same

time maximise coal production, the central government has

initiated steps to introduce underground coal gasification for

conversion of coal into product gas. Under the first phase, the

government has finalised three coal blocks in Jharkhand, Maharashtra

and Orissa to start gasification work within a year.

The underground gasification industrial process allows

maximisation of coal production, mitigation of carbon emissions

and also addresses other risks, according to minister of state for

coal (independent charge) Sriprakash Jaiswal. The technology is

currently in use in Russia, the US, Australia and China.

The minister said that underground coal gasification, has proved

to be a viable technology both on economic and ecological

grounds and can be used for producing fuel. Meanwhile 12

overseas coal producing companies shortlisted by state-owned

Coal Indian Ltd (CIL) for either strategic partnership or joint

ventures (JV) will make presentations in Kolkata on 14

December for evaluation of their offers by the Empowered

Committee. According to Partha S Bhattacharyya, chairman, CIL,

the 12 overseas mining companies would make their

presentations from 14 December to 17 December. The

presentations would then be evaluated and a decision on

entering into strategic partnerships of joint ventures taken.

The tie-up would be for import of coal through strategic

partnership, at a price which would be cheaper than that of

currently imported coal.

Replying to a query as to whether CIL would prefer joint venture,

Bhattacharya said the company was open to both strategic

partnership or JV depending on the offer. He added that if found

suitable, CIL could go for either partnership or JV with all 12

companies, which he declined to name. According to Coal India

director (technical), N C Jha, the companies would be ranked

on the basis of the strength and offer after evaluation of the

presentations of the companies from four companies.

India to begin extraction of coal through gasification

The Daily Times, December 2009

Amid international pressure to control environment pollution

and maximize the production of coal, the Centre has decided

to venture into underground coal gasification in a major way.

India will be the first among developing countries to start such a

venture. Underground coal gasification is an industrial

process, which enables coal to be converted into product gas.

In the first phase, the government has finalised three coal

blocks in Jharkhand, Maharastra and Orissa to start gasification

work within a year or so. The underground gasification

technique is a far better one than overcast and underground

mining. “This will maximize coal production; mitigate carbon

emission and other risks.

Ireland

Bringing Coal to Dublin Bay

Monday, 07 December 2009

The newly built dynamically positioned drillship Fugro Synergy

commences drilling operations for VP Power in the Kish Basin,

approximately 13.5 Nautical miles east of Bray Head this

morning. The wells will be shallow coal exploration drilling to

old layers of rock. The job is to verify the amount and quality of

coal in place for a future Underground Coal Gasification (UCG)

project. The deepest well will be drilled to 3,600 ft.

The operation has been put together by a consortium that

includes Brian Geoghan, husband of health minister Mary

Harney, and Michael O’Leary, who developed Dun Laoghaire

Marina. Funding for the €3million exploration was announced in

July. Details are in a Sunday Tribune article here. It is hoped that

2bn tonnes of “clean” gas-from-coal energy can be extracted

from the site.underground gasification.

VP Power nearly ready for €3m gas-from-coal test

Eamon Quinn

A group of investors, including director Mick Geoghegan and his

brother Brian, husband of health minister Mary Harney, have all

but completed a €3m fund raising to test a huge gas-from-coal

prospect that lies just eight miles off the Dublin City coast.

The Kish Basin prospect, close to the lighthouse of the same

name, is said to hold up to 2bn tonnes of “clean” gas-from-coal

energy that could power scores of power stations for many

years. VP Power, which has held an exploration license across

large sections of the Kish Basin for the last two years, is led

by the Dun Laoghaire marina developer Michael O’Leary (no

relation to Ryanair CEO), and chairman Con Casey, managing

partner of accountants LHM Casey McGrath.

Between them, geologist Mick Geoghegan, a senior director of

VP Power, and Brian Geoghegan, as an investor, hold “a slice” of

the shareholding in the company, O’Leary said. “All the seismic

information off the ship is now in two universities and with a

specialist house to analyse these reports.” Raglan Capital is

leading the investment round to complete the second stage

seismic study.

VP Power said it will use the new funding to prove the quantity

and quality of the coal in the 26 seams in the Kish prospect.

Clean technology, called underground coal gasification, that

heats the coal in the underwater rock reservoirs to extract gas,

has been proven in other parts of the world, say the investors.

The costs, though still considerable, would be lower and cleaner

than extracting energy from oil sands in Canada, VP Power says.

Mongolia

Gulfside Minerals Ltd. - Onjuul drilling update

TSX.V - GMG VANCOUVER, Dec. 7 /CNW

Robert L. Card, President of Gulfside Minerals Ltd, reports that

four holes of Gulfside’s drilling program on the Onjuul coal

project in Mongolia have been completed.

The first hole, TB001 was located as an offset to Hole No.12

of the 1973 Russian/Mongolian exploration program. Results

from this hole were reported in a news release dated November

23, 2009. The geophysical log revealed a 10 meter seam

between 125 meters and 135 meters, originally reported as 6

meters. The second hole, TB021, was drilled 500 meters to the

northwest of the 1973 exploration Hole No.11. TB021 was cored

to depth of 181.2 meters and encountered a 28.8 meter seam

between 37.6 and 66.4 meters; other thinner, but significant

seams were also encountered.

Clean Global Energy aims high with Mongolian coal

gasification agreement

Pro Active Investor, AU. Monday, November 02, 2009

Clean Global Energy Limited (ASX: CGV) has entered into Joint

Venture Agreement to undertake a proposed US$400m

Underground Coal Gasification project in Inner Mongolia, China.

The stock spiked on the news, currently up 15.4%, to 22.5

cents. Trading in the shares was strong with volume of 7.5

million shares. The project is to be undertaken on a staged

basis on Inner Mongolia Gu Xin Mining Co Ltd, Beijing’s 1.8

billion tonne coal deposit in Inner Mongolia.

A Hong Kong Based Joint Venture Company is to be established

for the project and to undertake the capital raising activities for

the project on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange of not less than

US$120m and debt funding of not more than US$280m.

Initial funding of the JVC prior to the listing, of US$1m will be

contributed by the joint venture partners in proportion to each

parties shareholding. CGE’s estimated portion of this will be

US$350,000 which will be funded from existing cash reserves.

CGE would hold a 35% controlling interest in the JVC and 2

board seats with the other parties holding 1 board seat each.

The Joint Venture Company is to enter into a documented

off-take agreement with Inner Mongolia Sukli Oil and Gas

Development Co. Ltd for the supply of between 5-12million

cubic meters of Syngas per day.

The Joint Venture Company is to exclusively engage and appoint

Clean Global Energy Limited to design, operate and manage the

Underground Coal Gasification plant under a separate

commercial operating agreement Clean Global Energy secured

the Joint Venture Agreement with Bejing Yusenjiayu

Environmental Protection Technology Co Ltd of Beijing, China,

Inner Mongolia Gu Xin Mining Co Ltd of Beijing, China (GX) and

Goldbridge Clean Tech Energy of East Sussex, United Kingdom,

to undertake a commercial underground coal gasification

project on GX’s Inner Mongolia coal deposit.

GX is an established and professional mining company, with

a large scale coal resource of 5 billion tonnes in Inner Mongolia.

With more than 1.2 billion tonnes of coal at depths and

seam thicknesses amenable to UCG. Following the signing of

the Joint Venture Agreement in Beijing, John Harkins, CGE’s

chairman and CEO, said: “This is a great outcome for CGE and

its shareholders. Not only is the Joint Venture Agreement the

achievement of another key milestone for CGE, it is a significant

example of the recognition of CGE’s UCG capabilities by the

international business community.”

“China is actively seeking clean energy alternatives and now

was the right time for CGE to become involved in this space,” he

said. We are very pleased to be working together with our joint

venture partners to provide a cleaner coal solution for China and

the global community and look forward to a successful future.”

CGE’s UCG technology uses an advance process known as

Controlled Retractable Injection Points that provides greater

control and efficiency in the UCG process.CGE is not without

experience in the UCG sector, one of its directors Dr Michael

Green is currently implementing the CRIP UCG process in

commercial projects in the UK and Europe. The CRIP UCG

process was successfully trialled in a €17m European project

in Spain which was headed up by CGE’s Technical Director, Dr.

Michael Green.

Pakistan

Cougar Energy receives Pakistan Government

approval for exploration licence.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Cougar Energy (ASX: CXY) - with the ongoing focus of

successfully progressing its Queensland UCG Power project –

has been granted an Exploration Licence through its

subsidiary for the Thar Coal Block III in the east of Sindh

Province in Pakistan. The announcement by Cougar Energy

was made to inform shareholders of the progress of its 47.8%

owned subsidiary, Cougar Energy UK, which advises that it has

been granted a Licence by the Government of Sindh in Pakistan.

The Licence of 47.3 square km covers an area of coal which

potentially is suited to the development of an Underground Coal

Gasification (UCG) project for much-needed power

generation in the region. It is located within Block III, in which

the Geological Survey of Pakistan had previously drilled 41

holes at approximately 1km spacing, all of which intersected

coal seams varying in thickness from 8m to 23m, at depths

ranging from 115m to 205m. The holes, of which 27 lie within

the Licence area, were cored and geophysically logged, and the

data has been compiled and reviewed, and is considered to be

insufficient to meet JORC standards of resource definition.

As a result, a drilling program is currently being planned to

establish an initial JORC resource in the range 100 – 200

million tonnes.

Cougar UK also advises that it has signed an MOU forming a

partnership with two financial institutions, based in Karachi and

Munich respectively, to assist in arranging the project financing.

Cougar Energy managing director Len Walker said the support

of the institutions would minimize any financial exposure of

Cougar UK in Pakistan and allowed the company to focus on

delivering the required project. Cougar UK is meeting its current

financial requirements for the project with funds from a

successful GBP100, 000 rights issue which was fully subscribed

by all shareholders. The company is also investigating a number

of possible project opportunities in Europe

Body set up to expedite Thar gasification projects

The International News, Sunday, December 13, 2009

By Imtiaz Ali

The Sindh government has decided to provide administrative

setup for the implementation of underground coal gasification

(UCG) projects in Thar. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali

Shah has approved a summary to set up governing body along

with other arrangements for the proper execution of two coal

gasification schemes under the Coal and Energy Development

Department. This decision was taken at a meeting of the Thar

Coal and Energy Board (TCEB) chaired by Shah at the CM House

on November 21, official sources told The News.Dr Samar

Mubarakmand, Member Science and Technology, Planning

Division, Islamabad, had written a letter to the Sindh

government on October 29, urging it “to set up a

governing body to realize the national objectives of meeting

energy demand through UCG based on Thar coal field.”

Two underground gasification projects designed by the

Planning Commission were approved by the Central

Development Working Party (CDWP) on April 30 and will cost

Rs 984.98 million. The purpose of these projects is to complete

the pilot project study of 50 megawatt (MW) in next 15 months

based on Thar coal. In case of positive results, major projects

for 1000 MW are expected to follow. Dr Samar had asked the

provincial government to sponsor the schemes and proposed an

administrative structure for the execution of two UCGs.

The officials said that Secretary Planning Division, Islamabad,

has shown willingness to transfer funds allocated for the

projects to Sindh. Apart from the governing body, a Programme

Monitoring Unit (PMU) would also be set up to execute the

projects on fast track basis. The governing body comprises

of Dr. Samar Mubarakmand as its chairman, additional chief

secretary (development) Sindh as vice chairman, secretary Coal

and Energy Development Department as member, secretary

finance as member, director general Sindh Coal Authority as

member, and managing director/project director UCG schemes

as member and secretary. The officials said that the governing

body would be responsible for the overall management of two

gasification projects.

The Planning and Development Department, Sindh, will

undertake periodical monitoring of two projects to ensure their

implementation as per approved cost/time. The officials claimed

that the governing body would not affect TCEB, as the role of

latter was that of a one stop organization to facilitate the

development of Thar coal, whereas the line departments

perform their own mandated formalities/functions. The TCEB

also plays the role of an “overseer by reviewing progress of all

the projects in Thar regularly and facilitating them in case of

any problems being faced by individual investors”. The officials

hence believe that in this case also the role of TCEB would

remain the same as that of a facilitator and overseer.

They said that the governing body was being set up to facilitate

Dr. Samar for the execution of UCG for which Block-V Thar has

already been allocated. They said that the need for setting up

the body was felt because Dr. Samar was facing difficulties in

its execution because of the fact that Planning Commission was

not an executing agency, hence he needed the support of Sindh

government in this regard. Regarding funds, the officials said

that the federal government would provide finances.

Lakhra coal power plant - Feasibility study to

complete in 3 months

The Daily Times, 20.10.09

The Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) will complete its

feasibility study of the 350MW Lakhra coal power plant, a joint

venture with Sindh government, within three months.

This was briefed in the 5th board meeting of the Thar Coal and

Energy Board (TCEB) at the Chief Minister’s House on Monday.

The chairman of the board, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah,

chaired the meeting where they were informed that the Asian

Development Bank would assist in preparing the feasibility

study for laying 1,200KVA HV DC line at a cost of $3.5 million,

which would cater for 3,000MW evacuation to the national grid

in first phase and 10,000MW later.

About the underground coal gasification scheme (UCGS), the

meeting was told that PEPCO would work with Dr Samar

Mubarakmand to expedite its early implementation. Cougar

Energy UK had started its tendering process for the UCGS in

block-3. The firm would start ground mobilisation by December.

The progress on the World Bank assisted Thar Coal and Power

Technical Assistance Project was also discussed and it was also

brought to the knowledge of the meeting that the Sindh

government’s irrigation and power department would submit the

PC-I for water conduit for Thar coal fields within three months.

The board further reviewed progress of venture between Sindh

government and Engro that includes engaging Chinese firms,

Sinocoal and North East Bureau of China, for bankable

feasibility; engaging of a German company RWE and engaging

of SRK and Hagler Baily for ESIA study.

South Africa

Alternative gasification method could reduce capital

costs

By: Paul Serebro, Creamer Media. 23rd October 2009

An alternative to coal gasification in reactors is underground

coal gasification (UCG).

This method of coal gasification has the potential to reduce

capital costs significantly, as the costs associated with surface

gasification and conventional coal-mining are removed,

because coal extraction and gasification occur in a single

phase. A further economic benefit of UCG is that it provides the

opportunity to extract stranded coal reserves that would

otherwise be unmineable.

The burning coal in the seam mitigates the environmental

impact of surface coal combustion and the associated release

of large quantities of carbon dioxide. Further, UCG reduces the

potential for soil contamination, as no handling and storage of

large volumes of ash and slag in ash dumps is required.

The method also allows for the removal of polluting

constituents, such as sulphur oxides, particulates and heavy

metals, from the production of synthetic gas (syngas).

In South Africa, petrochemicals company Sasol has completed

the basic engineering designs for a demonstration-scale UCG

plant, to be built on a stranded deep coal seam near its

coal-to-liquids facility in Secunda.Further, State-owned power

utility Eskom is developing a UCG project, with the first ignition

of the coal seam having occurred at the Majuba operation in

January 2007.

The project is being developed in a series of stages to ultimately

produce 2 100 MW of power using UCG in a combined-cycle

power plant.

Edited by: Shannon De Ryhove

UK

Balance of power returns to North Sea by burning

coal beneath the ocean floor.

Robin Pagnamenta Energy Editor, The Times December 9, 2009

Vast coal deposits lying deep beneath the North Sea will be

burnt in situ to generate up to 5 per cent of Britain’s energy

needs, under new plans approved by the Government last week.

The UK Coal Authority has awarded licences to Clean Coal, an

Anglo-American company, to develop five offshore sites for a

technology called Underground Coal Gasification (UCG).

The method, which has not been used on a commercial scale

in the UK, although it is widely used in Australia, taps the high

energy content of coal while doing away with the costly and

labour-intensive need to mine it first.

Rohan Courtney, a former director of Tullow Oil who is chairman

of Clean Coal, said that the potential for the technology was

enormous. “There are enormous amounts of coal lying beneath

the North Sea which have never been accessed,” he said. “This

technology is going to open up the industry again in the UK.”

The sites approved for use stretch up to 10km offshore from

Sunderland, Grimsby and Cromer on the shores of the North

Sea, Canonbie, near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway on the

other side of Scotland, and Swansea Bay, outside the entrance

to the Bristol Channel. The combined coal reserves are estimated

to be at least one billion tonnes, equivalent to more than

one sixth of all the coal consumed in an average year around

the world. Global consumption of coal is about 5.8 billion tonnes

a year. Total consumption in the UK is about 80 million tonnes a

year.

The technique uses two bore holes drilled into a coal seam. The

injection well is used to ignite the coal and keep it burning by

pumping down oxygen to supply the fire. The other is used to

extract a methane-rich synthetic gas that can be used to

generate electricity by driving an above-ground power station.

Mr Courtney said that polluting carbon dioxide produced from

the burning process could be stripped out and backfilled into

the cavities created beneath the surface using a technology that

was easier than the carbon capture and storage (CCS) method

that is proposed for use by power stations. However, the

methane gas produced will also emit carbon dioxide when it is

burnt. UCG technology was invented in Britain about a century

ago but has been refined recently through the use of advanced

seismic technology and directional drilling developed by the

oil industry. Ms Bond said that UCG had become commercially

viable in Britain with the advent of this new technology and

because high oil prices had improved the economics.

Enormous deposits of coal are known to lie beneath the North

Sea, extending from onshore deposits that have been mined in

Britain. Offshore exploration for oil has also shown the presence

of coal in many areas.

USA

Linc Energy increases coal lease holdings in Wyoming,

Montana and North Dakota.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Linc Energy (ASX: LNC) has announced that its wholly owned

subsidiaries Linc Energy (Wyoming) and Linc Energy (Montana)

have signed agreements with Wyoming based GasTech and its

related company Wold Oil Properties to acquire 81,268 acres

of additional coal lease areas in Wyoming, Montana and North

Dakota in the United States.These new coal lease areas will

add to and complement the 92,059 acres of State of Wyoming

Powder River Basin coal leases already held by the Company

and announced in September 2009.

On completion of the GasTech and Wold Oil transactions, Linc

Energy will hold a total of 173,327 acres of coal lease areas

across both the Powder River Basin and the Williston Basin in

the USA. Linc Energy chief executive Peter Bond said the

transaction was a key component to the completion of Linc

Energy’s entry into the Powder River Basin. “Linc Energy now

holds more State coal leases than any other company, with a

coal acreage footprint of 173,327 acres. This puts Linc Energy

into a very strong position to undertake commercial UCG

operations in Wyoming and move quickly to the construction of

a commercial Gas to Liquids facility in the USA,” Mr Bond said.

“The Linc Energy model will allow us to gain significant energy

flows from the coals of the Power River Basin using UCG.

“That gas flow will feed a GTL plant, but it will also provide

additional opportunities such as the sale of CO2 for use in

stranded oil recovery in the Wyoming region, and the ability to

produce cost effective power. He believed the company would

have at least 20 good sites within this acreage to undertake

UCG on coal properties.”I strongly believe that the utilisation of

UCG in Wyoming will transform the State and Linc Energy over

the next 24 months,” Mr Bond said. The purchase consideration

payable to GasTech is US$20,000,000, payable in ordinary, fully

paid shares in Linc Energy. The shares are to be issued in four

equal instalments valued at US$5,000,000 each, with the first

instalment being payable on the Closing Date and subsequent

instalments on each 6 month anniversary

Syngas With Carbon Capture at Cook Inlet

By Stefan Milkowski

C.I.R.I. Cook Inlet Region, Inc., an Alaska Native corporation, is

pursuing an underground coal gasification project on

corporation land near Anchorage. The technology could offer a

way to harness coal resources without the environmental

impacts of mining and burning coal. When developers

approached Cook Inlet Region Inc., an energy and resource

development company in Anchorage, Alaska, with the idea of

using underground coal gasification to tap into a huge coal field

nearby, officials thought the plan sounded too good to be true.

A well would be drilled into a coal seam deep underground.

Oxygen or air would be injected to start a combustion process,

and the resulting synthesis gas, or syngas, would be produced

through a second well. Carbon dioxide could be stripped out

before burning the syngas to make electricity.

“The more we learned, the more we thought, well, maybe it will

work,” said Jim Jager, C.I.R.I.’s director of communications.

After turning down proposals to mine coal at the site – Mr.

Jager cited a desire not to “destroy” the land – the company

recently announced plans to develop an underground coal

gasification project with a 100-megawatt power plant and

carbon capture and sequestration technology.

As the nation looks for ways to burn coal without producing so

much carbon dioxide, developers, researchers, and

environmentalists are all approaching underground coal

gasification, or U.C.G., with cautious optimism.

“The technology is promising,” said George Peridas of the

Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s at a stage where we

need additional research and development and pilot projects.

We are watching closely, and we hope that it succeeds.”

In its September report, “Coal Without Carbon,” the non-profit

Clean Air Task Force called for large-scale government

investment in research and development of UCG.

The technology is not new. The Department of Energy’s

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory studied it extensively

in the 1970s and 1980s, and the former Soviet Union developed

several underground coal gasification plants, one of which is

still operating. Other plants are up and running in Australia and

South Africa. What is new, according to Lawrence Livermore’s

Roger Aines, is combining underground coal gasification with

carbon capture and storage technology.

Because carbon dioxide can be removed from syngas before

combustion, capturing the greenhouse gas should be a lot

cheaper than with a traditional coal-fired power plant. Stripping

the carbon dioxide pre-combustion leaves the syngas with a

carbon footprint similar to that of natural gas. By converting the

fuel to hydrogen, the carbon footprint could be eliminated

completely. While UCG is not a realistic substitute everywhere

coal is mined – it’s best for getting at coal seems deep underground

– it could potentially triple the total amount of coal

accessible for use in the United States, according to Mr. Aines.

And there’s already a lot of coal. “It’s an enormous resource,” he

said, “if we can make good on it.”

At Copenhagen, the US should partner with India

India’s melting Himalayan glaciers are a sign of India’s booming

coal industry, but a technology partnership with the US would

be high-impact and low-carbon.

By Kurt Waltzer , P.R. Shukla , Semil Shah / December 7, 2009

Boston and Ahmedabad, India

As the world focuses on climate change this week in

Copenhagen, Denmark, delegates are set to negotiate complex

deals to avoid a future world of melted Arctic ice sheets and

significantly higher sea levels. But there is another ice-rich

region the world must also take into consideration: the

Himalayan glaciers. India’s “water towers” are beginning to

melt. For the subcontinent already challenged by growing water

needs and on the heels of a boom in coal use, the stakes are

high. As the Indian economy continues to grow despite global

conditions, Indian coal power (largely driving this growth) is

expected to increase 600 percent by the 2030s. This will put

India on a path to rival the United States as one of the world’s

largest users of coal-based power generation, paving the way

for a surge in carbon dioxide emissions.

Given this daunting scenario, and regardless of the outcome

in Copenhagen, India has no choice but to transform into the

world’s most innovated in climate technology and clean energy.

Cash isn’t the problem – it’s the lack of a comprehensive,

long-term plan and India’s long-term use of coal power. India

and the US should collaborate to actively leverage and focus

engineering talent and financial resources to create cleaner

low-cost energy technology.

Both governments should promote collaborations spurring both

demonstration of US intellectual property in India as well as

technological innovations from India deployed in the US.

Realistically, while India is developing a portfolio of alternative

sources of energy, such as biofuels, hydroelectric, nuclear, and,

most notably, their recent US$900 million investment in solar

power, coal will remain the major energy component for the

foreseeable future.

India boasts major coal reserves – more than 210 gigatons.

Coal currently generates over half of India’s electricity and is

projected to see extremely high growth to 2030. Coal is also a

major economic input, a central component to steel, cement,

fertilizers, and manufacturing. Furthermore, with nearly half of

India’s growing population off the grid, any major attempt at

rural electrification will require heaps of coal. Compounding

these problems is the fact that most of India’s coal reserves are

physically unavailable using traditional mining techniques.

Therefore, India must find ways to use advanced technology

that keeps coal power affordable but also clean. Underground

coal gasification is one such advanced technology.

Underground coal gasification is a near commercial

technology that may dramatically reduce power costs – even

when including carbon dioxide pollution controls such as

capture and storage. Therefore technology’s power may offer

developing countries the opportunity to affordably include

capture and storage in the future, while offering developed

countries a lower-cost, low-carbon option today.

Underground coal gasification projects are not without

challenges, as any advanced power technology must provide

significant expansion of electricity generation, be cost

competitive, and help improve reliability. Development of

underground coal gasification projects requires both

commercial sector and government collaboration to focus on

key areas, such as project co investment, technical issues,

and environmental standards.

Today, underground coal gasification projects are under way in

China and Australia, with plans for projects in India, the US, and

South Africa; only cross-border collaboration, however, will help

the development of underground coal gasification and diffusion

accelerate in order to contribute to a world with less carbon.

A long-term solution for India, though, would be to leverage

its technology and engineering-focused pockets of talent from

technological universities and government-funded research

centres to transform India into the world’s laboratory for

cutting-edge research, development, and demonstration –

or R,D&D.

This model, while recognizing that coal is vital to meet India’s

energy demands for the foreseeable future, provides it with a

diversified portfolio that will help India affordably manage its

carbon emissions as its economy expands. Developed nations

such as the US should partner with India in this effort. The US

could commercialize its new technology more rapidly in the

booming Indian marketplace, as well as access lower-cost

technology developed by Indian inventors. And American

companies, research groups, and universities could provide

India with the components it needs – mainly, an industry that

wants to develop lower-cost clean energy options,

innovative technologies, and sophisticated multilateral funds.

India’s energy needs, growing economy, and the melting

Himalayas put the country in a difficult situation. Multilateral

negotiations, such as those at Copenhagen this week, can

only go so far – and move only so fast. India and the US could

develop a true partnership based on critical, mutual needs and

benefit both in the long term. India and the US have what they

need right there in front of them – it’s just a matter of reaching

out and grabbing it.

Kurt Waltzer is the carbon storage development coordinator,

of the Coal Transition Project, at the Clean Air Task Force. P.R.

Shukla is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in

Ahmedabad. Semil Shah is a principal at India Strategy

Consulting.

Energy research and consultancy, Zeus Development

Corporation observes a rapid rise in the number

of underground coal gasification (UCG) projects in

recent months.

HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwire)-- 11/30/09

“Greenhouse gas emission concerns are prompting power

and coal-to-liquids project developers to find innovative ways

to manage carbon,” said Chris Cothran, upstream analyst at

Zeus. “Most of the UCG projects proposed currently intend to

capture and store carbon emissions either in nearby oilfields for

improved oil recovery or exhausted coal seams.”

Underground coal gasification offers a third way for producers

to convert the energy from coal into electricity, the first two

being traditional pulverized coal combustion and integrated

gasification and combined-cycle (IGCC) generation. “Both

pulverized coal and IGCC plants require mining the coal from

surface or underground mines, which is expensive and energy

intensive,” Cothran said. “If UCG developers can perfect their

technology, the cost of mining and transporting coal as well as

building the reactor for IGCC to gasify the coal will disappear.”

In the past four months, announcements have been issued of

advancements at six UCG projects. Developers include India’s

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC), Australia’s Linc Energy,

Carbon Energy, and Cougar Energy, and U.S. Gas Tech and Cook

Inlet Region Inc. (CERI).

Vietnam

Huge projects to exploit Red River coal deposits

29-10-2009

HA NOI — The National Viet Nam Coal and Mineral Industries

Group (VINACOMIN) wants to exploit nearly 210 billion tonnes of

coal from the Hong (Red) River basin. Recent surveys indicate

about 90 per cent of the coal is in Thai Binh Province. The

deposits are estimated to be 20 times bigger than the coal

reserve currently being mined in Quang Ninh Province.

Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Heavy Industry

Department Nguyen Manh Quan, who is also vice chairman of

the project’s Appraising Council, said the reserve is spread over

a 3,500sq.km area under paddy fields and residential housing.

The reserve is 600m to 2,000m beneath the surface.

Quan said VINACOMIN would not resort to open-cast mining

because it would destroy the topography.”The coal basin is in a

very environmentally sensitive area and open-cast mining might

adversely affect the socio-economy of the area. It is vital to take

into account the ecology and living conditions of the people in

the area,” Quan said.

Professor Le Nhu Hung from the University of Mining and

Geology, who is a member of the research team, said that the

coal reserve had to be mined carefully as there was a risk of

subsidence, which could affect water sources.”Food security

is also vital to our country,” he said. “However, if the mining is

conducted properly the opportunity of success is very high,”

Hung said.

VINACOMIN plans to start four pilot projects – three in Hung Yen

Province and one in Thai Binh. Shafts will be dug to depths of

between 450m-600m, and 600m to 1,200m.

Director of the Red River Energy Company, the project’s investor,

Nguyen Thanh Son, said the biggest concern was that

mining would lead to subsidence. However, he said if mining

was conducted carefully, there would not be a problem.

“There is no need to worry. We can control the situation during

the exploration. We will stop the project immediately if there are

any signs of subsidence,” Son said.

Two of the four projects will involve underground coal

gasification, which avoids the need to mine the coal. The

technique involves injecting oxidants into the unmined coal

seam and bringing the product gas to the surface through

production wells drilled. The product gas can be used as a

chemical feedstock or as fuel for power generation. The first

project will be launched next year at a cost of US$6.5 million.

Surveys indicate that a 85sq.km area in Hung Yen Province

could also be mined, and that there were potential coal reserves

in other areas of Thai Binh Province.

Quan said it would take between nine and ten years to mine

five million tonnes of coal, and three to four years to exploit the

same amount of coal using underground gasification

technology.

Coal reserves in Quang Ninh Province are expected to be

exhausted by 2015. — VNS

Red River Delta to be mined for coal

09 November 2009 by hoang

Vinacomin will soon begin exploring and extracting coal in

the Red River Delta on a trial basis, a group senior official

said last week.

The group believes that roughly 210 billion tonnes of coal lie

beneath the Red River Delta, with up to 90 per cent of the coal

in coastal Thai Binh province, the biggest rice bowl in the north,

and the rest is in nearby Hung Yen province

“We expect that the government will allow a trial exploration

and exploitation project in the first two mining spots in Khoai

Chau district, Hung Yen province early next year,” said

Vinacomin’s president Tran Xuan Hoa.

The government is reviewing the group’s proposal, which was

submitted early October. The company plans to use

underground coal gasification (UCG) and underground coal

mining (UCM) technologies in the Tien Dung and Binh Minh

mines. In late September, the Interministerial Assessment

Council agreed to recommend government approval for

Vinacomin’s plan to extract coal from the Red River Delta. This

agreement followed a series of meetings regarding the plan’s

feasibility and the impacts in the natural environment and rice

industry. The council includes representatives from the

ministries of Industry and Trade, Planning and Investment,

Finance, Natural Resources and Environment, Agriculture and

Rural Development and leaders of Thai Binh and Hung Yen

provincial people’s committees.

The council also agreed to recommend that the government

approve the trial application of UCG and UCM technologies.

“The issues of the environment, rice cultivation and residents’

lives are of utmost concern to the government in regards to this

project,” Hoa said.

Vinacomin has estimated that Vietnam will have to import

around 7.9 million tonnes of coal in 2012 to feed local coal-fired

power plants, which will consume 32.5 million tonnes of coal.

Imports will increase to 9.2 million tonnes in 2013, 25 million

tonnes in 2015, 35.2 million tonnes in 2020 and 27 million

tonnes in 2025. Hoa said if the exploration and extraction could

start next year, the first batch of the Red River Delta coal would

be ready by 2015 or 2017. “We will then make specific

assessments and decide on whether to extend the project’s

scale,” he said.

In May 2009, Vinacomin established a joint venture with

Marubeni Corp. of Japan and Linc Energy of Australia to explore

coal in the Red River Delta with UCG technology.

The joint venture consists of a 60 per cent stake held by

Vinacomin, 20 per cent by Linc Energy and 20 per cent by

Marubeni. It is responsible for coal exploration in Tien Dung

mine. Vinacomin has also planned to use UCG technology for

coal exploration and exploitation in Binh Minh mine.

According to Vinacomin, mining coal reserves in the Red River

Delta will cost up to $2.5 billion.(VIR)

Other News

Secure Indigenous supply – as you all know this is

an aspect of UCG we are keen to promote. The very

unusual and lengthy spells of cold weather in Europe

and elsewhere highlighted concerns over Gas supplies,

below are just three of many articles:

National Grid issues second gas alert in four days

Daily Telegraph 07.01.2010

National Grid has issued its second gas balancing alert for

Britain this week as the snow and cold weather looked set to

push demand to a new record high.

The gas pipeline operator’s warning came as it predicted

demand for gas would hit a new record of 456.7 million

cubic metres (mcm) on Thursday, beating the previous record

of 449mcm on January 7, 2003. The Met Office expects the

extreme cold spell to last into next week.

On Monday, National Grid was forced to issue its second-ever

gas balancing alert, warning increased demand could force

large users to cut their consumption. This alert was triggered

by increased demand due to the extreme cold weather across

the country and a problem with a pipeline supplying gas from

Norway. Gas prices for same-day delivery surged as much as

80pc, touching 62p per therm, but fell back sharply as big users

such as power stations switched from gas to coal, suppliers

brought in more gas from the Continent and Norway came back

on stream.

Further problems with supply from Norway also caused today’s

alert, pushing up gas prices. Gas for delivery today jumped 7p

to 51.5p, while gas for Friday stood at 46p per therm ($7.34 per

mmbtu) by 1100 GMT, up 0.4p. Data from National Grid showed

Norwegian input via the Langeled pipeline plunged to around

25mcm from more than 70 mcm aroud 11am.

“There’s this nervousness. Supply from Norway has just

dropped off,” a trader told Reuters. “The system turned short

from long.

The cold spell is going to last for some time.”

The pipeline operator warned on Monday there was a “high

likelihood” that customers with so-called interruptible

contracts - which include factories and NHS trusts - could face

supply disruption. Such customers pay lower gas rates on the

understanding that their supply may occasionally be cut in order

to protect supplies to homes. Coal accounted for 44pc of the

country’s power supply, according to National Grid data, while

the gas share stood at 39pc.

Europe faces energy crisis as Vladimir Putin cuts

Russian gas supply

Europe has been plunged into an energy crisis after Vladimir

Putin ordered Russia’s state-run gas company to cut supplies

by 20 per cent. Daily Telegraph By Miriam Elder in Moscow and

Bruno Waterfield in Brussels 05 Jan 2009

As temperatures dropped below zero across much of Europe,

the Russian prime minister instructed the head of Gazprom:

“Cut it - starting today.” The cut was ordered to punish

neighbouring Ukraine, which Russia accuses of topping up its

own gas supply by siphoning off energy meant for European

consumers and sent through its pipelines.

But Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-run gas company, said that it was

European Union countries, including Britain, that would feel the

effects of an increasingly bitter East-West energy row.

“Gazprom has in fact cut volumes of transit gas to European

customers. The Russian company has therefore placed under

threat the delivery of gas to European countries,” Naftogaz said

in a statement. The EU meanwhile dispatched an emergency

fact-finding mission to Ukraine after eight European countries

reported a disruption of gas supplies following a smaller

Russian cut last week. The taskforce of senior officials from

the European Commission and the Czech Republic, which has

just taken over the EU’s rotating presidency, will also hold crisis

talks with Gazprom on Tuesday.

EU foreign ministers, meeting in Prague on Thursday, will then

assess levels of gas supply disruption and discuss possible

action to prevent energy shortages amid sub-zero temperatures

in most European capitals. EU countries are dependent for one

quarter of their gas supplies on Russia, of which 80 per cent

comes via pipelines that cross the Ukraine. Some, such as

Poland, depend on Gazprom for over three quarters of their gas

supply. Britain receives up to 15 per cent of its supply from

Russian sources, mainly channelled through French pipelines.

The Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria,

Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary have already reported problems

with their supply.

The Commission has insisted that “there is no immediate

danger of disruption for European citizens”. But officials are

worried that the latest wave of freezing weather, in one of the

coldest winters for years, will push the EU into a full blown

energy crisis by fuelling demand for Russian gas as people seek

to heat their homes across Europe.

“The situation is changing. We are seeing a cold week ahead,”

said the Commission spokesman.”Cold weather has an

immediate effect on demand.The supply of gas has to be higher

or complemented with more use of storage.”

At a meeting at Mr Putin’s luxury dacha, he backed demands

by Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, for a daily reduction to

Ukraine’s pipeline gas flow of 65.3 million cubic metres, energy

that Russia claims that the Kiev has stolen during a price

dispute.

Gazprom first started to cut gas supplies to Ukraine on New

Year’s Day, after talks over a supply contract broke down amid

accusations that Kiev had failed to pay its full bill for 2008.

Naftogaz denies allegations it has siphoned off gas without

paying Russia.

Central China power supply in jeopardy on coal,

weather

Thu Jan 7, 2010 3:20am GMT

BEJING, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Power supplies to all regions covered

by Central China Grid Co are in jeopardy after some provinces

started rationing power, while demand in others continues to

rise, State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), the country’s leading grid

operator, said on Thursday.The regions, including the central

and southwestern inland provinces of Chongqing, Henan, Hubei,

Hunan, Jiangxi and Sichuan are vulnerable to power supply

shocks in winter when hydropower output shrinks and coal

shipments are confined by less efficient road and rail transport.

Coastal regions can receive coal in bulk from sea-borne routes

even though they are further from coal production centres in

northern China. Parts of China have been experiencing power

and natural gas shortages since November as earlier-than-usual

cold weather drove up demand and increases in coal and gas

supplies were limited.

However, analysts doubted a re-emergence of the widespread

power shortages seen in the summer of 2008, when power

plants curbed coal stocks and power output because of soaring

coal costs. Power loads on the central China grid continued to

rise entering 2010 after hitting a record high of 94.61 gigawatts

(GW) on Dec. 28, SGCC said in a release on its website, sourcing

information from Central China Grid Co, one of its five regional

grids. Electricity loads rose to fresh highs in Hunan, Jiangxi and

Sichuan on Tuesday after power rationing started on Monday in

Hunan, Hubei and Chongqing, leading to an emergency situation

in terms of power use, it said. Power demand in these regions

is likely to continue to grow in January and February, with

temperatures expected to keep falling. Coal stocks at coal-fired

power plants in the region would decline to less than 6 million

tonnes if supplies did not improve in January, and more

generators would have to be shut down, the release said.

A total of 3.35 GW of power generators were shut down on Dec.

31 and 53 power plants, with a generating capacity of 38.84

GW, were running with coal stocks insufficient for seven days of

generation. In addition, 17 generators, or 6.51 GW of capacity,

were shut down on Dec. 17 because of malfunctions from either

long-term overuse or poor coal quality, according to the release.

Power generating capacity in the region, including all types and

sizes of generators, totalled 172.37 GW at the end of 2008.

(Reporting by Jim Bai and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Chris

Lewis)

Forthcoming Events 2010

2010

January

The 6th Annual Clean Energy Forum-Clean

Coal 2010

January 27-29, 2010, Tianjin China.

The event is endorsed by IEA Clean Coal Centre, and supported

by National Reform and Development Commission Energy

Research Institute and Clean Air Task Force. More information,

please visit event website: www.cleancoalforum.com

February

Coal UK Conference and Dinner 2010

February 22, 2010 - London, UK

Coal UK Conference and Dinner will focus on four key themes:

policy, supply, the markets and the challenges. All the latest

issues and views will be presented and discussed to bring you

up-to-date and aid your future planning. The keynote session

looks at the long-term future policy for the UK coal and power

industries with addresses from both the major political parties

http://conf.mccloskeycoal.com/story.

asp?storycode=68406

March

5th UCGP International Conference & Workshop

London 23rd - 24th March 2010

Venue: Deloitte, 2 New Street Square, London

Our own flasgship event offering two days of the most

informative and in depth information on UCG.

Please don’t forget to book your place!

This event also offers unparalleled networking for this sector

so please join us at the Networking Dinner in the evening of the

23rd at the Tower Hotel.

www.ucgp.com/conference.

2010

April

SMi Gasification

Dates 19-20 April 2010 Location: Crowne Plaza St James

London

Covering a wide range of industry driven topics such as the latest

UCG and IGCC developments, Gasification 2010 will also be

uncovering some newer trends including biomass gasification

and niche technologies within the field. Featuring speakers from

key projects around the world and providing in-depth analysis

of the issues facing the sector.

http://www.smi-online.co.uk/2010gasification29.

asp

October

27th International Pittsburgh Coal Conference

Istanbul, Turkey 11th -14th October 2010

This leading conference is dedicated to providing a unique

opportunity for in-depth and focused exchange of technical

information and policy issues among representatives from

industry, government and academia throughout the world.

Topics include, Combustion, Gasification, UCG, Coal Process

plus more. There is now a call for papers. To qualify for acceptance,

you must submit a one-page abstract

on or before March 1, 2010.

A template and all conference details can be found on the website

www.engr.pitt.edu/pcc/

This is an event we highly recommend.

If you are presenting at an event on UCG

anywhere - please let us know, we will be

happy to publicise your attendance.

UCGA News

UCGP becomes UCGA

In 2009, with great support from the legal firm Nabarro, we had been looking to change our status to a UK registered charity.

UCG Association (“UCGA”), a private company limited by guarantee, was formed in June 2009 and an application was made to register

UCGA with the Charity Commission. UCGA’s application has however met some initial objections from the Charity Commission, which

we are trying to resolve. Regardless of whether UCGA achieves charitable status, there are important benefits in moving to a company

limited by guarantee, such as reinforcing UCGA as a non-profit organisation and establishing limited liability for its members.UCG

Partnership Limited (“UCGP”) will become a wholly owned subsidiary company of UCGA.

This move follows a natural growth in the work we undertake which has had a shift towards the regulatory and licensing aspects of

UCG Technology, plus Training and knowledge exchange to increase global understanding and expertise. The organisation’s main

emphasis will be very much focused on public information on all aspects of underground coal gasification, and information for

regulators, industry and anyone wishing to know more about UCG to support the commercial growth and understanding of UCG

globally. We will emphasise more the UCG process and how it fits in to the energy mix. Our target audience will be regulators,

financiers, investors and the general public. The organisation will further develop its activities in training, workshops and

conferences under the UCGP banner.

We will of course continue in promoting UCG as a clean, environmentally friendly energy source with the advantage of security of

supply as well as economic benefits but feel that we have established a firm platform for commercial UCG operators to push the

financial viability and commercial aspects better themselves. This will enable us, as an organisation, to remain impartial to the

commercial objectives and growth of members but support all of you in your endeavours.

A new website will be unveiled in March and all are welcome to give suggestions and input. We have always intended to have the

definitive UCG library contained within our site and we ask all of you to please send us any UCG information/presentations/papers.

Original authors will always be acknowledged.

UCGA will be overseen by Julie Lauder, who becomes CEO of the organisation. She will be guided and supported by the Board of

Trustees. The UCGA Advisory Council and UCGA Research Group remits and personnel remain the same.

The Trustees of the Association are:

Rohan Courtney, Clean Coal(Chairman)

Don Kinnersley, Deloitte

Prof. Peter Styles, Keele University

Dr Cliff Mallett, Carbon Energy

Dr Michael Green, UCG Engineering

Kenneth Fergusson, Senior Advisor, UCG Partnership

All members of UCGP will automatically be UCGA members. There is no change in fees or member

benefits.If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to receive

questions or comments.

UCG Regulations and Licensing

UCGP have been invited by a number of regulatory authorities to assist in the development and formulation of UCG licensing and

regulations. Most countries do not have ready made licensing for UCG and we can assist. It is our pleasure to engage with regulators at

an early stage to ensure that every issue likely to come up is dealt with. If would like us to assist please let us know.

We have extensive information on this subject as a result of previous discussions with regulators around the world.

Our knowledge base covers permitting, environmental and health and safety issues. UCGP continues to expand and extend

involvement in the industry. We are working on a standard method of valuation for UCG assets, which is particularly important when

members are seeking financing for their projects. This should be available soon. We encourage exchange of information on project

results and also note the concerns our members have and the problems they come across. We always welcome enquiries from our

members or prospective members and are here to help.

UCG Chapters and Membership Expansion

We continue to work towards establishing UCG chapters in key global locations, namely, USA, South Africa, Australia, and China.

We have been offered considerable support from members in these regions and will update you on any significant developments.

However, we are requesting that members please pass on any contacts they may know or have worked with who may benefit from

joining the Association. We are especially keen to engage with those that we see as integral to the supply chain. Please pass on any

details and contacts to Julie Lauder – julie.lauder@ucgp.com

UCGP Research Group

Prof Peter Styles, who Chairs the Research Group continues to work all hours on preparations for several EU funding initiatives for

UCG. Peter has undertaken all of the paperwork and set up for the two groups below and we would like to acknowledge the time spent,

especially on the submission deadline of 23rd December! You will understand the scope of this work when you see the impressive

groups below.

In July we submitted the first Marie Curie Proposal under the IAPP (Industry and Academic Partnership Scheme) with 5 partners

UK

Professor Peter Styles, Keele University ,

Dr Matt Turner, Clean Coal Limited,

Spain

Dr Jose Paulino Fernandez Alvarez, Departamento de Matemáticas y Explotación de Minas, Facultad de Ciencias y Escuela, Oviedo.

Dr Cesar Romero HUNOSA Ltd, Independencia, 13, 33004 Oviedo,Spain

Australia

Dr Cliff Mallett, Carbon Energy Pty Ltd.,

The proposal feedback has been received and we scored 71% which is above the threshold for funding and we await the results of

the final phase. We understand that competition is very fierce so we are not getting too excited but from a zero baseline where the EU

knew very little about UCG this is a good start and the involvement of Australia was seen as a strong feature.

Clean Coal and Carbon Capture Consortium

UK

Professor Peter Styles,Keele University

Professor Dermot Roddy/Dr Gerardo Gonzalez, Newcastle University

Julie Lauder, UCGA

Prof Jon Gluyas, Durham University

Mr Peter Dryburgh, Director, Wardell Armstrong LLP

Dr Richard Marsh, Cardiff University

Germany

Dr Ralph Schlueter, Deutsche Montan Technologie GmbH,

Prof Thomas Kempka,Department of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology / RWTH Aachen

Netherlands

Dr Alexander Kronimus,TNO - National Geological Survey

Poland

Professor Jan Palarski, Silesian Technical University of Gliwice (STU),

Spain

Dr Jose Paulino Fernandez Alvarez

Departamento de Matemáticas y Explotación de Minas Oviedo, SPAIN

Dr Cesar Romero,HUNOSA, Oviedo,Spain

Italy

Fabrizio Pisanu Mech.Eng.,Head of Development Division,CARBOSULCIS SpA

Slovakia

Prof.Ing.Karol Kostúr,CSc.,Institute of Control and Informatization of Production Processes

Faculty of Mining, Technical University,Košice,Slovakia

Turkey

Prof.Dr. Mustafa Versan KÖKDept. Middle East Technical University,Ankara,Turkey

Australia

Dr Cliff Mallett, Carbon Energy Pty Ltd.

This is a very powerful network and should have a reasonable chance of catching the EU FP7 eye. Time will tell!

If you have any research ideas or information that you would like to share with him or others in this group please contact Prof. Styles in

the first instance. Email: p.styles@esci.keele.ac.uk

We thank Peter for his continued efforts and support

EU Project HUGE - Update

The EU Huge project is due for completion in 2010. An underground UCG test at the Barbro experimental test centre is planned to start

this month, and the final experiments with high pressure gasification of Polish coal samples will be undertaken at Liege University in

the next few months. Ex-situ tests on blocks of coal are also underway. The project is on schedule for its completion date of July 2010.

UCG Reserves Initiative

As reported in the last issue, UCGP is currently working with a selected group of members, all of whom have experience in this area,

to research a method and criteria to place a reliable valuation on any potential UCG resource .The team is led by Ray Pilcher, Raven

Ridge Resources. Ray will share the findings at our forthcoming conference in March, there will of course be scope for discussions and

further input.

Government Policies on UCG

On 9th November 2009, the UK government published its responses to consultations on proposed new regulations for carbon-capture

readiness (CCR) and for the development of clean coal. UCGP had submitted views on both of these consultations. Notwithstanding

this, the responses made only two passing references to UCG, and failed to recognise UCG as a potential major contribution to UK

energy resources, which should be accommodated in policy statements.

A further consultation was launched in January, on planning procedures and requirements, in the form of “National Policy Statements”.

UCGP will respond to this and propose that a specific NPS for UCG should be formulated. Input from members welcome

We welcome information as to whether similar policy responses have been made or are required in other regions. As a central

organisation we are well placed to assist and support all efforts to have UCG recognised and included in all future energy policies

globally.

UCG trip to Australia by Julie Lauder – October/November 2009

The Australia visit was a very worthwhile exercise, as it is vital for our relationship with members to visit and support them at events.

Also a lot of spreading the word and trying to enlist new members, many new contacts to add to the mailing list, new relationships

formed and some new members.

Many were very happy for the chance to have one on one discussions and to be informed of the future focus for UCGP and the change

to UCGA. I visited folk in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Many new relationships down under were initiated. The interest for a

UCG conference in Australia was high and met with much enthusiasm. Julie met an array of people from all the skill sets, drillers, and

geologists, finance, regulatory and commercial UCG companies. The issues and rivalry between UCG and CBM is certainly an issue in

Australia. Several events were attended, special thanks to Rick Somerton of Energie Futures for the invitation to present at an investor

event and to Don Kinnersley, from Deloitte who made introductions to all the main Deloitte offices in Australia. The introductions were

very helpful in securing meetings and potential UCG contacts.

As well as almost six weeks of perfect weather Julie was fortunate to visit the Bloodwood Creek site with Cliff Mallett and Rusty Mark

of Carbon Energy on the day they linked the syngas to a turbine, so shared in a historic UCG moment.

UCG Presentations were given by Kenneth Fergusson, Senior Advisor UCG Partnership at the following recent UK events:

Midland Institute of Mining Engineers - 12th November 2009

Keele University - 13th November 2009.

The All-Party Group on Peak Oil (APPGOPO) in the UK Parliament - 19th January 2010

In addition to describing the basics of UCG and state of development internationally, the potential of UCG gas, with CCS, to supplement

or replace natural gas in CCGT power stations in the UK was described. All events were well attended and involved lively and informed

discussions, as well as promotion of the UCGA. Each event attracted a different audience and the presentations were modified in accordance

to the attendees. We thank Ken for his time, efforts and continuing commitment. The presentations are available on the UCGP

website.

UCGA Reports

As the association grows in strength and influence so do the benefits.

We are always seeking to strengthen our membership and what we offer and continue to work with others to obtain discounts

and benefits that we can pass on to all members. Our 2010 Conference is free to all members attending, substantial discounts

apply to UCGP training courses and we have managed to obtain discounts to outside conferences for members.

Some of the benefits of Membership

· A network of contacts of individuals, companies and public organisations involved in UCG Regular newsletter and updates on new

and existing UCG projects around the world Employment Register and Job opportunities in UCG.

· Investment Opportunities described on the website.

· Access to a complete and unique online archive information on all UCG from early days.

· Focal point for all information relevant to UCG for members via email, website and seminars.

· Access to inter-active website.

· Public and independent information service on UCG.

· Representation at the highest level.

· Early advice and “clearing house” for UCG on financial and technical aspects of UCG projects, through contacts with energy

companies, banking and project finance specialists.

· Source of academic and practical training in UCG in association with academia.

· Feasibility studies, collaborative development and other study programmes on UCG.

· Information on Research Projects organised by UCG Association and early opportunity for members to become involved.

· Early opportunity for members to get involved in UCG Projects.

· Tailored support from UCGA for seminars, training courses (at additional cost).

Annual Membership Fees:

Number of Employees Cost No. of free conference delegate places

Under 10 people £750 One

Under 20 people £1,500 Two

Under 50 people £2,000 Three

Under 100 people £3,000 Four

100 people and over £5,000 Six

Academic £1,000 Two

Reciprocal Nil One

Membership and Benefits of UCGA

UCG Association

Elizabeth House, Duke Street,

Woking, Surrey GU21 5AS

Phone: +44 1252 661978 Fax: +44 1483 851170

2010-01-31T16:05:00.001-08:00

ucgp UPDATE

Quarterly Newsletter for Members of the UCG Partnership

ISSUE 14, October 2009

5th International Conference on

Underground Coal Gasification

Deloitte, New Street Square, London

23rd -24th March 2010

Drinks Reception and Networking Dinner at The Tower Hotel

Please submit your Abstracts by the 30th October 2009

Hear from the world’s leading UCG experts and foremost practioners

The 5th definitive conference on Underground Coal Gasification, Our flagship

two day event will reflect the increased level of global interest, activity, research and studies plus news on

all the existing and emerging UCG projects. We address the relevant issues and challenges facing the UCG

community and provide the only high-level forum for exchange of information and expertise. The programme

will cover the important topics of UCG clean coal technology from gasification to carbon capture and

storage. We bring together many of the foremost practitioners of this technology from around the world in

a comprehensive programme that aims to inform and enlighten all to the opportunity and potential of UCG

technology. This event offers unparalleled networking for all in UCG.

Workshop Day

A full programme of topics including: UCG – CCS, Mathematical Monitoring, Coiled Tube Drilling Techniques,

Public Perception plus research news from around the world.

Conference Day

The UCGP Conference provides the most up to date reports on UCG projects and studies from around the

world, plus a review of UCG Partnership activities and plans for the coming twelve months and the

opportunity to network with the most prominent in the UCG community.

Speakers already confirmed include participants from: Russia, Europe,

Australia, Zambia and USA.

Please submit your abstracts soon if you would like to be included in

the proceedings, this event offers a great marketing and information

platform

The full programme has yet to be finalised, so watch out for updates and announcements on the website:

www.ucgp.com/conference or contact Julie Lauder, julie.lauder@ucgp.com

After many requests from Members and conference attendees we will be holding our First Networking

Dinner. The cost of the dinner, which includes wine is £100.00 per head. Pre dinner drinks and canapés

at a private reception in Tower Hotels XI, with stunning views of Tower Bridge, followed by a Three Course

Dinner,Coffee and Petit Fours, VAT is also included.

Places are limited to 100 so book early – non conference attendees welcome.

Not a member? Join Today! If you or one of your colleagues would

like to join us we offer not only the chance to add your voice to a

growing number working in the same sector but opportunity

to engage in projects at an early stage.

Conference Reception and

Dinner - Tower Hotel,

London 23rd March

UCG gas for power generation

Our Senior Adviser, Ken Fergusson, at the invitation

of the editor of the journal “Modern Power Systems”,

wrote an article which was published in the August

issue, under the headline: “A cleaner, cheaper,

indigenous fuel for combined cycle plants”. Its timing

has proved to be fortuitous, coinciding with a number

of consultations and commentaries on energy

planning in UK.

Most recently, the Committee on Climate Change, that

lack of plans to build sufficient wind and clean coal to

meet low-carbon generation targets brought the risk

that power suppliers would opt to build more gas-fired

plants using imported fuel. This is the opportunity for

UCG to be seen as a substitute or supplementary

fuel for these CCGT’s. The article is available on the

UCGP website

New Members

UCGP warmly welcome the following new members:

Imperial College, London

Keele University

Carbones del Cerrejon Ltd, Bogota, Colombia

Peel Energy Limited, Manchester, UK

Riverside Energy Limited, Victoria, Australia

Travel and Accommodation

The Tower Hotel, London – *Book by 31st December 2009

UCGP have again secured special rates* for conference delegates at this 4 star London Hotel, situated close to the

Conference & Workshop venue, with stunning views of some of London’s most historic landmarks. They offer a variety of

décor styles and room choices to suit all tastes, both modern and traditional, prices are excellent and £20.00 lower than last

year!

Prices: Per night.

Deluxe Rooms: £155.00 inclusive of VAT and English breakfast

Executive Rooms at £185.00 inclusive of VAT and English breakfast

Premier Executive Rooms at £205.00 inclusive of VAT and English breakfast

There will be a £10 supplement for double occupancy to cover the second breakfasts

http://www.guoman.com/the-tower/

To Book please contact: mark.willsher@grosvenortm.co.uk

UCGP are delighted to personally recommend the services of Grosvenor Travel Management, a leading global travel

advisory firm, enabling small and medium size organisations to enjoy the benefit of travel and hotel rates normally only

available to large corporates. For excellent personal service and a no obligation quote for travel costs, hotel rates, ground

arrangements and more please contact Mark Willsher: mark.willsher@grosvenortm.co.uk

It is advisable to book early

Numbers are limited and places will go quickly

Please advise if you would like to take up the showcase opportunity at

the conference – free to all members

UCGP International Conference on Underground Coal

Gasification and Bloodwood Creek site visit, Australia

2010.

We will be holding a second event in Brisbane, Australia in October/November 2010, date to be finalised, and our first major

event outside of the UK. The event will include presentations and updates from many of our Australia members as well as

global updates and will continue the related work from the recent Clean Coal Networking mission. A key feature of the event

will be a site visit to the Carbon Energy Bloodwood Creek UCG facility, a must for all in UCG and associated technologies.

We are already speaking with many who have expressed an interest in taking part in both events but welcome suggestions

and input from members and affiliates, especially if you have any contacts who may be interested in the opportunity of

sponsorship.

As yet no decision has been made as to whether both events will be free to UCGP members or if there will be a need to

charge an attendance fee, hence the interest in sponsors. It may be that both events will be free of charge but a charge may

be made for networking events. We will keep you all updated on progress of both events and hope that you will look forward

to them with as much excitement as us.

More details will follow as soon as they become available.

Not a member? Join Today! If you or one of your colleagues would

like to join us we offer not only the chance to add your voice to a

growing number working in the same sector but opportunity

to engage in projects at an early stage.

News from Around the World

AUSTRALIA

Carbon Energy Low-emissions Coal Project

Moves Closer

Mon, July 20, 2009

Carbon Energy has signed a commercial offtake contract with

Ergon Energy for electricity produced at Carbon Energy’s

Bloodwood Creek facility, located in the Surat Basin, Queensland.

The first electricity from the 5 megawatt (MW) syngas-powered

facility is expected to flow into the local grid by the end of 2009,

and the facility will generate enough power to supply

approximately 4,000 homes per year.

The contract follows the success of Carbon Energy’s trial of the

underground coal gasification technology developed in

conjunction with Australia’s CSIRO. Carbon Energy managing

director Andrew Dash said they are moving forward with plans

for an additional 20 MW power station at the Bloodwood Creek

location for 2010. The second power plant is aimed to allow the

company to demonstrate carbon capture and potentially carbon

storage.

Liberty, Clean Global in syngas deal

22-July-09 by Edited announcement

Subiaco-based Liberty Resources has signed an agreement with

private company Clean Global Energy to develop an underground

coal gasification project in Queensland.

Part of the announcement is below:

Liberty Resources Limited (“Liberty”) is pleased to announce that

it has signed a Heads of Agreement with Clean Global Energy

Pty Ltd (“CGE”) for development of an Underground Coal Gasification

(“UCG”) project in the Surat Basin, Queensland. Following

a review, CGE will be able to earn up to a 60% interest in an

agreed tenement by undertaking UCG exploration.

Subject to regulatory approval, CGE will then construct a pilot

plant initially producing 1PJ per annum of syngas expanding to

50PJ per annum. Liberty will have an initial free-carried interest.

Liberty’s Bentley (EPCA1736) and Goondalah (EPCA 1735)

tenements are to be reviewed. Other tenements in the Surat may

subsequently be considered.

Following initial production of syngas, Liberty and CGE will enter

into a joint venture to pilot 50PJ per annum of syngas. Liberty will

have a 30% interest and CGE a 70% interest in the joint venture.

Liberty will contribute in accordance with its 30% interest from

signing the JV. Liberty is working towards supplying affordable

gas and power, and at the same time offering a unique opportunity

to reduce Australia’s level of CO2 emissions. Liberty has

extensive tenements including those with coal at depths greater

then 700m below the surface. Gasification (steaming) of deep

coal seams creates deep chambers suitable for storing CO2.

At depth CO2 becomes a liquid - held securely by the Earth’s

pressure.

Carbon Energy Low-Emissions Coal Project

Moves Closer 2

Posted July 24, 2009 Sourced From Pennenergy.com

Sydney - Wednesday - July 22: (RWE Australian Business News)

- Carbon Energy Ltd (ASX:CNX) today announced “a major step

forward” towards what would be Australia’s first demonstration

of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) using Carbon Capture

and Storage (CCS) technology, with the signing of an agreement

between Carbon Energy and ZeroGen.

The agreement signals the first phase of a CO2 injection test

program which will see Carbon Energy combine its UCG

technology with ZeroGen’s techniques for CO2 injection.

Directors say ZeroGen is developing the world’s first

commercial- scale demonstration of another low-emissions coal

technology - Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) with

CCS - and has been conducting a highly advanced CO2 storage

exploration program in the Northern Denison Trough (NDT), near

Springsure in central Queensland, since 2006. Captured CO2

from the Carbon Energy UCG plant will be transported by

ZeroGen for injection and storage up to 2km underground in the

NDT, which has already been found to have suitable geology to

safely and securely store large quantities of CO2.

This test will demonstrate the technical viability of producing

low-emission electricity from UCG. Successfully combining

Carbon Energy’s UCG technology and ZeroGen’s CO2 injection

capability means that coal-fired electricity emissions could be

reduced by up to two thirds.

July 27th 2009

Carbon Energy (CNX) has executed a deal to joint venture a 338

million tonne inferred thermal Coal Resource in Queensland’s

Galilee Basin. It will hold 80% of the Joint Venture and will be

the operator, Liberty Resources (ASX: LBY) will contribute

the tenements holding the coal resource into the JV. Using

Underground Coal Gasification (UCG), a number of coal

resources in the Galilee Basin have potential to be monetised.

Already, Carbon Energy has Queensland Government policy

approval for a UCG plant at one of its tenements in the

Surat Basin. Carbon Energy has signed a Heads of Agreement

(HoA) with Liberty Resources (ASX: LBY) to establish a joint venture

to develop Liberty’s 338 million tonne thermal coal inferred

resource in the Galilee Basin.

The optimal development of the resource will be evaluated by

Carbon, using its expertise in Underground Coal Gasification.

In addition, Carbon will:

- Apply for a Mineral Development Licence to undertake a trial

- Design and construct a trial project

- Conduct feasibility studies into the following commercial opportunities:

power generation, synthetic natural gas production,

chemical production, liquid fuel production; and

- Design and construction of commercial scale underground coal

gasification facility.

Liberty holds two granted Exploration Permits for Coal (“EPC”)

and an overlying Mining Development License Application

(“MDLA”) in the Galilee basin and has assessed these EPCs’

to contain a JORC compliant estimate of 338 million tonnes of

inferred coal resource.

The coal resource is open in all directions and is expected to

increase significantly with exploration drilling. Liberty will

contribute 100% of the EPC’s into the joint venture. Liberty will

be free carried through the initial assessment and trial phase

which will involve some exploration drilling and the establishment

of a trial plant capable of producing initially 1 and then 40 PJ per

annum of syngas. The two parties will thereafter contribute to the

joint venture in proportion to their pro-rata interest.

Carbon Energy can elect to establish additional 40 PJ per

annum Pilots under the Agreement with Liberty. At this stage

4 other Areas of interest have been identified by Liberty.

Currently, the Queensland government policy provides for three

UCG operations in Queensland, including Carbon Energy’s

existing MDL 374 at Bloodwood Creek in the Surat Basin. The

Joint Venture will seek to obtain Government approval and

negotiate terms with the overlapping tenement holders in order to

progress this development. These discussions are anticipated to

take approximately 12 months to conclude.

Linc raises $77.4m for SA plant

CAMERON ENGLAND

August 05, 2009 11:45am

LINC Energy has raised $77.4 million to accelerate the design of

its first South Australian gas to liquids plant.

The Brisbane company announced this week it had raised

the money to progress the development of its projects in SA,

Queensland, the U.S. and Vietnam. Linc announced plans late

last year to invest up to $1 billion building several coal to liquids

plants in the State’s far north.

The money raised this week will be used to accelerate drilling in

SA, as well as the design of the initial 20,000 barrel per day plant.

It would also be used to ``accelerate site selection, feasibility

engineering and design for the first commercial underground coal

gasification has filed operation within the company’s South Australian

tenements’’. In a $104 million deal, Linc last year merged

with Adelaide energy company Sapex, which owned leases in the

Arckaringa coal fields between Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta.

The capital raising was made up of a $57.4 million institutional

share placement and a $20 million share purchase plan, open to

shareholders registered at the close of business today, Sydney

time. Shareholders will be eligible to subscribe for up to $15,000

worth of shares at a price of $1.40. Linc shares were trading at

$1.46 in early trade.

WA company bids to clean up coal

Cortlan Bennett August 22, 2009 06:00pm

WHILE news focussed on Gorgon’s $50 billion LNG sale to China

this week, another WA company was quietly working its own

energy deals with the Asian giant.

ASX-listed International Resource Holdings has signed two

memoranda of understanding for underground coal gasification

projects in Inner Mongolia. The MOUs which will work towards a

joint venture agreement over the next six months were signed in

conjunction with IRH’s reverse-acquisition partner, Clean

Global Energy, and British partner, Goldbridge Clean Technology.

Underground coal gasification is similar to coal seam gas

extraction. Hot air is pumped underground into a coal seam

which vaporises the coal. The resulting fuel gas is then piped

above ground where it is collected and stored.

Up to 70 per cent of the underground coal is vaporised, leaving

an empty chamber which can be used for carbon sequestration

effectively a zero-pollution, closed-loop process. IRH/CGE and

Goldbridge will provide the technology to two separate Chinese

consortia with coal deposits in Inner Mongolia. In the first

agreement, Guo Xin Mining will develop a 2 billion tonne coal

resource with its partner Beijing Yusenjiayu Environmental

Protection Technology, which will provide environmental solutions

to the project. In the second, CECIC Chongqing Industry will

develop a 900 million tonne resource.

Coal-gas plan for Mid-West power

Cortlan Bennett, Business Editor

September 12, 2009 06:00pm

A SOLUTION to the power supply problems of WA’s Mid-West

may be right underfoot

Eneabba Gas is sitting on about 300 million tonnes of coal near

the port town of Dongara, 350km north of Perth. In April, it sold

its exploration tenements to Queensland-based Carbon Energy in

return for a 5 per cent stake in the underground coal gasification

company, plus a 30-year contract to supply up to 45 terajoules of

syngas a day to fire its turbines.

Eneabba Gas managing director Mark Babidge said the ``clean

coal-gas’’ deal would be complemented by 1200ha of native

conservation and tree plantings to offset carbon emissions.

``We’re already on track with the development,’’ Mr Babidge said.

``We have all our approvals in place and we have the underground

coal gasification as a fuel. ``We already have an offset _

we’ll almost be carbon neutral. ``We have the flexibility, we have

the fuel at a low price, we have the emissions (offsets) at a low

price, we can save (mining companies) a huge amount of capital

and the Government doesn’t have to put its hand in its pocket.

`We even have the capacity in the local area network if needs

be to service Geraldton and Oakajee Port with one turbine as a

support.’’

Cougar Energy scores A$8M for underground coal

gasification

September 15, 2009

Australian firm plans to use the money to complete construction

of its UCG demonstration project in Queensland.

Melbourne, Australia’s Cougar Energy (ASX:CXY) said today

a new private placement will allow it to finish construction and

launch pre-production operations of a project in Queensland,

Australia, using underground coal gasification (UCG) technology.

The Kingaroy UCG project is expected to provide samples for

testing to prove the technology works at commercial scale.

Cougar Energy is designing its first commercial facility, the

Kingaroy Power Plant, at the same site. Cougar is also

developing a potential UCG project in the Gippsland Basin

in Victoria with Ignite Energy Resources. Cougar Energy closed

on A$8.29 million (US$7.16 million) in a private placement from

institutional investors in Australia and the United States last week,

representing the first time international investors have

participated. In addition, the company announced today its first

share purchase plan to raise up to A$6 million. The new capital is

also expected to fund its drilling programs at other project sites

Liberty reports increase in thermal coal resource

September 22, 2009

LIBERTY Resources has reported a huge increase in thermal

coal resource from its coal projects. The Queensland

underground coal gasification company has announced a rise

from 338 million tonnes to 3.1 billion tonnes. Liberty has five

coal projects in proximity, toward its plan to gasify the deep coal

resource and produce Syngas. One of the projects is a joint venture

with Carbon Energy. Andrew Haythorpe says this significant

inferred resource increase still only represents a small area of

Liberty’s total project potential.

Haythorpe says the coal quality in the basins covered by the

Liberty tenements, is believed ideal for in-situ conversion to liquid

fuels and power generation. However all types of coal are being

evaluated for their suitability for UCG.

A group of residents wants a South Burnett mining

project stopped because of environmental

concerns.

Cougar Energy has started work on production plant that will

burn coal underground near Kingaroy. The company plans to

build a 400 megawatt power station if its trial is successful.

But residents near the site say they have not been consulted and

the company has not completed an environmental impact statement

(EIS) on the project. Spokesman Damian O’Sullivan says

they are worried about how the UCG plant will affect water and

air quality. “One of the things is that there’s quite a lot of people

getting water supplies from less than 600 metres away from this

project and this certainly hasn’t been considered in the environmental

authority report that the EPA [Environmental Protection

Agency] have done,” he said.

“So potentially there’s a huge number, hundreds of people who

could be affected if their water supplies aren’t available.”

Cougar Energy’s John Henderson says the company is not

required to complete an EIS for a trial project.

“We are operating under an environmental authority which has

something like 130 very strict conditions and these conditions

cover air quality, water quality, noise vibration, there’s a number of

criteria we have to comply with,” he said.

Cougar Energy shows off its UCG project

13 October 2009

COUGAR Energy opened the doors of its underground coal

gasification (UCG) project to Kingaroy residents on the 12 October

2009. The company says the tour was designed to allay the

public’s fears about the project. The group assured attendees that

the development is safe for both humans and the environment.

The tour was followed with a presentation, which provided the

community will factual and relevant information.

QLD coal boom back, it seems coal is the new black

20th July 2009

QUEENSLAND Resources Council (QRC) chief executive

Michael Roche , has predicted that boom times are ahead for the

coal mining industry. The gloom that gripped the industry in

December and January had been replaced by a wave of

optimism based on a surge of demand from China and

emerging Asian markets.

Roche says that the industry is recruiting again and that both

production and exports are up. He also claims that there is

no shortage of investment cash to develop a host of new coal

projects in Central Queensland. The QRC says that 30% of coal

leaving Gladstone in the June quarter went to China, where

economic growth continues to be strong and there is an insatiable

demand for electricity to supply the fast-growing cities. Major

global forecasts pointed to continued strengthening in China and

a slow but steady recover in Europe and Japan.

Roche says that the focus at QREX over the next five days would

be on attracting people to the industry. He expects coal production

will double in the next 20 years. Roche claims that although

it had been a difficult year, the royalties to the State Government

from mining in 2009/10 would be the second highest on record at

$1.8 billion.

Funding for Drilling Exploration Cooperative Research

Centres.

Australian Mining 10 August 2009
by Michael Mills

Federal Innovation Minister Kim Carr announced a $28 million

grant on Friday aimed at boosting research into faster, deeper

mineral exploration drilling techniques. The funding is part

of larger $243 million investment into Cooperative Research

Centres (CRC), AAP reports.The Government has set up Deep

Exploration CRC to counter the low rate of success in mineral

exploration and rising production costs. According to Senator

Carr, the researchers will examine deeper drilling techniques

across the “vast areas of Australia that are known to be prospective

for minerals.The research undertaken by these CRC’s will

deliver significant social, environmental and economic benefits to

Australia,” he said.

The funding also included $17.5 million towards a new CRC to investigate

the viability of gas pipelines.According to Senator Carr,

the researchers will examine deeper drilling techniques across

the “vast areas of Australia that are known to be prospective for

minerals.” The research undertaken by these CRC’s will deliver

significant social, environmental and economic benefits to Australia,”

he said. The funding also included $17.5 million towards a

new CRC to investigate the viability of gas pipelines.

The race for resources between UCG and CSG

23 July 2009

The technologies behind coal seam gas (CSG) and underground

coal gasification (UCG) are poised to revolutionise Australia’s

coal mining and energy industries by offering cleaner power

station fuel alternatives to coal. However CSG and UCG

are potentially in conflict over the same land, prompting

tenure access issues and also the question: can the

Australian energy market support only one of these developing

technologies?

Queensland is leading Australia in the practical realisation of

CSG and UCG and the Queensland Government looks set to

be the first to attempt to resolve the conflicts between CSG and

UCG proponents.CSG occurs naturally within a coal seam and

can be extracted as an alternative energy source. In 2007, CSG

supplied 75% of Queensland’s gas market and by 2008 the total

Australian market for CSG was increasing at the rate of 4% pa.

To date, conflicts between CSG and other mining interests have

been resolved through prioritising tenures and by requiring

co-operation between coal and CSG producers in overlapping

tenures. UCG’s entry into the energy market place has added

further complexity to this balance act because it involves the in

situ burning of coal into a synthetic gas (syngas) which is suitable

for power generation and coal-to-liquid fuel conversion.

So, the two technologies are incompatible to the extent that UCG

producers are looking to burn the coal resources from which CSG

producers want to extract gas.Competition in the power industry,

a shift towards gas as a preferred cleaner fuel and the potential

introduction of an emissions trading scheme all encourage the

commercial development of UCG. The benefit of UCG over CSG

is that it combines the low fuel cost attributed to coal with the

power generation efficiency attributable to natural gas.

UCG also allows economically or geographically

inaccessible coal reserves to be exploited and so has the

potential to significantly increase global coal reserves.Although

UCG has not yet been commercially proven or exploited, Linc Energy

has successfully gasified 35,000t of coal at their pilot plant

near Chinchilla in Queensland and two other UCG projects are in

the planning stages for Queensland. At a global level, research

on the UCG technology is underway in the US, UK, South Africa,

China, Vietnam and India.Tenure overlapsIn Queensland, CSG

tenures are issued under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and

Safety) Act and tenures for UCG are issued under the Mineral

Resources Act.

To date, only exploration tenures and mineral development

licences (MDL) for UCG have been awarded in Queensland.

This position is likely to prevail for the foreseeable future given

the Queensland Government UCG Policy issued in February

2009 (Policy).The Policy is the preliminary step to resolving the

competing demands of UCG and CSG producers for the same

land and resources. It provides existing UCG pilot projects with

an opportunity to demonstrate the viability of the process, while

minimising any impact on CSG production investment. It does

this by approving the Linc Energy, Cougar Energy and Carbon

Energy UCG pilot projects currently underway in Queensland on

MDLs. Where these MDLs overlap with petroleum tenures,

preference will be given to the MDLs, effectively sterilising the

area covered by each MDL from further petroleum tenure

applications.Quoting public interest grounds, the Policy provides

that no other UCG pilot projects will be approved prior to

conclusion of the pilot phase (30 June 2011), unless the Minister

uses his discretion to approve additional projects that have ‘a

strong ability to further demonstrate the efficacy of the UCG

technology’.

Further, applications to upgrade an exploration permits for coal

(EPC) to an MDL (a necessary stage in the UCG process) for

UCG will not be considered before 30 June 2011. However, the

Policy recognises that current EPC holders may want to position

themselves advantageously if UCG technology is given the green

light. Until 19 Feb 2010, any EPC holder not subject to petroleum

tenure overlap may nominate an area within the EPC (called an

EPS) as future possible UCG tenure. An EPS sterilises the area

for any other tenure applications which will result in no further

CSG applications being approved on overlapping EPC tenure

until 18 February 2010 to allow EPC holders an opportunity to

nominate an EPS.

The legislative challenge of regulating UCG and CSG is not

only valid for Queensland. The Carbon Energy agreement with

Eneabba Gas Limited indicates Western Australia may soon host

the UCG industry. The additional pressure on the Victorian brown

coal industry to invest in clean coal technologies could also

be resolved through UCG but economic development requires

certainty for investment in trial technologies.The future for UCG

and CSG?A mines department report on the viability of UCG is

to be presented to the Queensland Cabinet no later than 2012. If

the report is unfavourable to UCG, on-going constraints or even

prohibition of UCG activities could be recommended.

The Policy does not give certainty to either current UCG

investment beyond what already exists, or expansion of CSG

interests in areas where UCG is also an option. Imposition of

public interest considerations indicate that the government is not

disposed to encourage UCG investment. Uncertainty will continue

until the policy is enshrined in legislation, which will be 2012 at

the earliest, so the advice for now is ….watch this space. Denis

Gately, Partner Minter Ellison

Canada

Nordic Oil and Gas acquires P & NG rights on onehalf

section of land in Drumheller, Alberta

WINNIPEG, Oct. 1 /CNW/

Donald Benson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nordic

Oil and Gas Ltd. (“Nordic” or the “Company”) today announced

that the Company, in conjunction with its joint venture partner,

Western Warner Oils Ltd. (“Western Warner”) has acquired the

Petroleum and Natural Gas (P & NG) rights on one-half section

of its land in Drumheller, Alberta. The rights are from the surface

to the base of the Belly River zone. Nordic will immediately be

moving to arrange for pooling of its newly acquired interest with

the owner of the remainder of the land.

“This is an important step for the Company in the process to

develop our Drumheller property,” Mr. Benson stated. “This will

enable us to move forward on the Underground Coal Gasification

(UCG) project that we announced in July of this year.

“It is a requirement for us to own both the P & NG and the Coal

rights in order for us to proceed on the UCG project,” he added.

China

Chinese firm set for UCG project?

Pub. Date: 8/12/2009 3:55:32 PM

One of China’s largest energy firms could be set to explore the

possibility of working on underground coal gasification (UCG)

projects in the country.

The China Huaneng Group has signed a memorandum of

understanding with Duke Energy which will see the two share

information on coal gasification schemes as well as renewable

technologies. Huang Yongda, vice-president of the Chinese firm,

said: “China Huaneng Group has been attaching great importance

to emission reduction and clean energy development, and

has made great achievements on that.”

The firm is looking forward to sharing information and jointly

promoting the development of clean energy, he added.

Duke Energy is currently working on a coal gasification plant in

Edwardsport in the US.

The facility will be able to generate 630-megawatts of power

when it comes into service.

Green Technology: China Means Business

by Lilian Luca, The Beijing Axis - Edited version

A substantial portion of the Chinese government’s stimulus

package, more than a third in fact, has been earmarked for

projects that would either, directly or indirectly, have a positive

environmental impact. Two broad tendencies are clearly visible:

the diversification of energy resources to include renewable

resources such as solar and wind; and efforts to reduce the

adverse effects of China’s main energy input, coal.

This brings us to the forefront of cleaner coal technologies

– underground coal gasification (UGS) and carbon capture

and sequestration (CCS) – as yet unproven technologies that

are being developed in advanced economies around the world

as solutions to global warming and pollution. China is actively

conducting pilots schemes using both these technologies – 10

pilot projects in UGS and two pilot projects in CCS are currently

either under construction or in operation. The trends suggest that

China is really serious about utilising advanced technologies in

gaining efficiency and decreasing the environmental impact of

energy generation.

Hungary

Friday, September 04, 2009

Wildhorse Energy (ASX: WHE) has decided to push out from its

uranium focus in Hungary, with a deal to acquire coal assets in

southern Hungary. Although the coal assets to be acquired, are in

proximity to Wildhorse’s Pecs uranium project, Unlisted Australian

company Peak Coal, holds the rights to substantial coal assets

in southern Hungary, with potential for underground coal

gasification (UCG) has agreed to be acquired by Wildhorse.

Peak Coal’s tenements have an exploration target of 1 – 1.25 billion

tonnes of coal. Although not a JORC resource, drilling will be

undertaken to define the resource. Peak holds both coal and coal

bed methane (CBM) exploration rights to 306km² of the Mecsek

coal formation. Uhde Shedden, a division of the large

international engineering firm Thysen Kryupp, are currently

completing a scoping study based upon the potential

development of a UCG production facility on Peak’s license area.

Hungary is chronically short of power and currently imports

nearly 80% of its domestic gas requirements (mainly from

Russia). And is a net importer of electricity and together with

nearby countries import 60 – 80% of their gas requirements.

Brett Mitchell executive director of Wildhorse said wholesale gas

prices in Hungary are approximately 3 times higher than they are

in Australia, auguring well for the company.

Mitchell said Wildhorse proposes to acquire 100% of Peak’s

issued capital through the issue of 1 Wildhorse share for every

3 Peak shares. The same ratio will also apply to Peak options.

This will result in 36.71m new Wildhorse shares and 23.97m new

Wildhorse options being issued to Peak shareholders and option

holders. He said Wildhorse shareholders will vote on the deal in

mid November. Meanwhile, Wildhorse is developing its Pécs

uranium project in Southern Hungary, which has an existing

JORC inferred resource of 17MT at 0.08% U3O8 for 30Mlbs

of U3O8.

India

Strict Norms for Underground Coal Gasification in

India

The coal ministry has notified strict guidelines for carrying out

underground coal gasification in India.Underground coal

gasification (UCG) enables the coal to be converted into gas

(producer or syngas). UCG is an in-situ gasification process

carried out in non-mined coal seams using injection of oxidants,

and bringing the gas to surface through production wells drilled

from the surface. The gas could to be used as a chemical

feedstock or as fuel for power generation. In addition to offering

a method of using coal which sometimes could not be otherwise

mined, the UCG has less environmental and social impact. For

coal gasification in India, time ceilings have been announced to

ensure that syngas production from these captive blocks commence

within 36-42 months from the date of issue of letter of

allocation. Any slippage in these deadlines could lead to serious

penalties including forfeiting of bank guarantees.

ONGC gears for coal gasification project

Maulik Pathak / Ahmedabad August 21, 2009, 0:58 IST

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is gearing up for gas

production at India’s first underground coal gasification (UCG)

project on a pilot basis at Vastan Mine Block near Surat in

Gujarat. The field is expected to produce about 5.5 lakh cubic

metres of synthetic gas per day by end of 2010.

Once it achieves success in this pilot project, ONGC — which is

the main operator for the field — aims to go commercial by

producing about 2 billion cubic metres of the synthetic gas per

annum from this field by 2013-2014, a senior company official

close to the development said. The investment for commercial

rollout of the project would be in the range of Rs 1,000-2,000

crore and the field has enough reserves to last for about 30-40

years, sources said. Apart from Vastan Field, ONGC is also

looking to set up a UCG project at Bhavnagar in Gujarat and in

Rajasthan, too. The calorific value of synthetic gas is 10

times lower than natural gas.

From the Indian Government

100 days action plan of coal ministry: the road so far…

Agenda 5: Publishing guidelines for Underground Coal

gasification projects. Status: Achieved

Government notified coal gasification (both surface and underground)

as end use under captive mining policy for allotment of

blocks to potential entrepreneurs. It was felt at that time that being

a new activity/ technology, operational guidelines were required

to be framed for proper exploitation of coal blocks under UCG.

Fulfilling its promise, coal ministry prepared a set of guidelines to

facilitate, benefit and guide the new entrepreneurs spearheading

this technology in India.

Coal gasification project worth Rs 2,400 cr on anvil

Jayajit Dash / Bhubaneswar October 13, 2009, 0:58 IST

A Rs 2,400-crore surface coal gasification project planned by

Coal India Ltd (CIL) and GAIL India is expected to move forward,

as both the public sector companies have agreed to open a new

round of negotiations soon on the project.

“We are going to have a fresh round of talks with GAIL soon on

the project. CIL and GAIL will form a 50:50 joint venture for the

project,” a top CIL official told Business Standard. The project has

not made any significant headway since the signing of the

Memorandum of Understanding between CIL and GAIL India in

January 2008. A coal block at Talcher Coalfields under the

command area of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a

subsidiary of CIL, had been identified for this surface-based

coal gasification project.

The process of exploration of the coal block identified for the

project would take around 18 months to be completed.

Following the completion of exploration, the relevant data

collected would be submitted to a premier mining institute in

Russia which would act as the consultant for the gasification

project. The coal reserves in the identified block and cost of the

project would be ascertained after the completion of the

exploration work.

CIL had also planned an underground coal gasification project

with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The block

identified was spread over four sq km and located in the

command area of Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), a subsidiary of

CIL. The MoU was in 2007 and the two entities were set to sign a

pact for a 50:50 joint venture. While CIL would offer a coal block

for the project, ONGC would decide the technology to be used.

Pakistan

Four projects of 2450 MW approved; govt to invest

Rs80bn in five years on infrastructure.

Sunday, August 23, 2009. By Imtiaz Ali

KARACHI: The Thar Coal and Energy Board (TCEB) has

approved four Thar coal reserves projects to generate up to 2,450

megawatt (MW) power, whose capacity would be increased up

to 10,000 MW by year 2020, to meet the growing energy needs

of the country. This was decided in the fourth TCEB meeting,

presided over by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the

Chief Minister House here on Saturday.

Addressing a joint press conference at the Chief Minister

House, Qaim Ali Shah, Minister for Water and Power Raja

Pervez Ashraf and Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said the

Planning Commission (PC) would set up 50 MW underground

gasification plants, to be completed within a year by using

“indigenous technology” with help of nuclear scientist Dr Samar

Mubarakmand. They said the Engro would set up a 1,000 MW

power plant, which would be a joint venture of the Sindh

government and the Engro.

They said Pepco would establish a 1,000 MW gasification

plant. A private firm, Coujar, would also set up a 400 MW

gasification plant, they added. Tarin said both the federal

and provincial governments would invest Rs 80 billion on

infrastructure development in Thar in two to five years to facilitate

investors for utilising 185 billion metric tonnes of coal there.

He said diesel and fertiliser could also be made through

underground gasification.

South Africa

Eskom eyes solar power, gas from coal

Wed Oct 7, 2009 1:34pm GMT

Steve Lennon, Eskom’s Managing Director for Corporate

Services, said projects would take shape next year.

“You will be seeing the timing of big renewables, the timing of

nuclear, you will be seeing more certainty on underground coal

gasification ... first quarter next year you will see a lot of things

come together,” Lennon told Reuters in an interview. While South

Africa will depend on coal for some time to come, Eskom plans to

replace old plants, which it will start decomissioning from 2025,

with more efficient technologies to reduce its carbon dioxide

emissions, now at 230 million tonnes.

Lennon said Eskom was designing a 42-megawatt pilot plant to

test a technology to gasify deep coal deposits underground and

feed the gas into a combined cycle gas turbine. It then plans to

scale up the project to a 2,100 MW plant. “A full-scale (2,100

MW) plant, everything going well, could be running around

2015-16,” he said. Eskom has long been investing in cheap and

reliable plants based on coal, but Lennon said the cost of a

kilowatt hour from underground coal gasification could be as

cheap or even cheaper.

United Kingdom

Kirkcaldy sites earmarked for ‘green’ power station

23 July 2009 By David Blackwood

A NEW green power station may be located in Kirkcaldy.

The Frances Colliery site at Dysart and the Seafield area have

been suggested as two possible locations for the development,

which is being undertaken by Aberdeen firm Thornton New

Energy Ltd. The planned power station will use coal gasification

technology, a technique which turns coal into gas underground,

uses it to generate electricity and pumps the resulting carbon

emissions back underground.

Alan Borrowman, director for surface facilities and process, said

that although the company favoured Frances Colliery as a site

for the development, Methil was also being considered. However,

he said the area did not have a high quality of coal due to the

proximity to extinct volcanos like Largo Law which changed it

into almost pure carbon. Past volcanic activity also disrupts coal

seams making it more difficult to drill.

He said: “Underground coal gasification is a new way of getting

coal, but it doesn’t involve mining. It converts the power more

efficiently than other power stations. “You have to change the way

you think about power stations, because we don’t have turbines

and chimneys. We wouldn’t have chimneys because there are no

emissions. We don’t have coal heaps and ash handling.

“There shouldn’t be much noise and there won’t be road traffic,

as it will all be done through pipes.” He added that the company’s

licence allows it to drill a certain distance from Fife’s shores, and

they would consider putting a drilling rig in the Firth of Forth in

order to access the high quality coal there. He said: “We haven’t

finalised our plans yet. If we find another suitable site somewhere

over towards Methil that would be considered as we favour

brownfield sites.

“We are very conscious of it being a community project and we

don’t want to be disturbing people with drilling and light pollution.

We don’t want to keep people up at night.”

Mr Borrowman added that the power stations’ by-products would

be used for a variety of different uses such as making chemicals

and plastics, and that even waste heat could be used to heat

greenhouses on local farms. Thornton New Energy intends to

start drilling at one of the suggested sites in 18 months time,

following surveys to find the best quality coal. Robin Presswood,

development manager for business and strategy in Fife Council’s

development services, said the Council was committed to

working with Thornton New Energy.

He said: “It’s an exciting new idea and we are keen to work with

the company as it develops this pioneering new clean energy

technology. “It’s something which adds significantly to Fife’s reputation

as a centre for clean energy. We are keen on helping them

explore their potential. “It isn’t renewable energy, but it is certainly

clean energy because we have the potential to put the carbon

dioxide back into the ground. It can certainly help with climate

change.” He also added such a development could provide a

potential 200 jobs for the area.

Waste2Tricity Names Arbon Board Chair

Jul 17, 2009

The board of Waste2Tricity on July 15 announced the

appointment of Professor Ian Arbon, CEng, CEnv as chair.

Arbon’s appointment coincides with the news of a proposed joint

venture to bring together the most efficient technology to convert

coal into electricity combining new generation fuel cells with

underground coal gasification (UCG),Thornton New Energy Ltd

and Waste2Tricity Ltd have signed a memorandum of

understanding.

Also allowing for the capture of carbon dioxide

as part of the process, the proposed joint venture is the United

Kingdom’s first commercial application to generate clean

electricity from coal, combining new generation AFC Energy fuel

cells with UCG and other proven technologies. The gasification

of coal underground generates a fuel with a low emissions profile

and the potential for complete carbon capture and storage (CCS)

at low energy and financial costs.

Thornton New Energy, a subsidiary of BCG Energy Ltd, was in

January 2009 awarded the first UK license to carry out UCG and

develop deep, previously un-mineable coal reserves under the

Firth of Forth, Scotland. Waste2Tricity has exclusive rights for the

application of AFC Energy fuel cells with any gasification technology

within the UK, including energy from waste.

Thornton New Energy’s director of surface facilities, Alan Borrowman,

says, “When combined with UCG, the hydrogen fuel

cells enable a higher efficiency conversion of the energy in coal

to electricity. We were very keen to partner with Waste2Tricity in

order to utilize AFC Energy’s new generation fuel cells and create

the first clean coal electricity model that outperforms conventional

coal power stations in terms of net energy generated from coal,

the low cost opportunity to eliminate CO2 emissions, and even

the potential to eliminate the need for conventional coal mining

activities.”

New Chair Arbon commented: “This is a major breakthrough in

the future utilization of coal for electricity generation and could

have a significant impact worldwide in eliminating greenhouse

gases produced from coal. This is one of the few technologies

available to us which will actually help us to meet the UK’s

ambitious 2020 emissions commitments.”

Because UCG takes place underground, normal coal extraction

processes are eliminated, reducing noise and visual impact, and

the technology can be incorporated on existing coal mines.

Once the coal is gasified, it is maintained by continuous oxidant

flow that converts it into syngas, a combustible hydrogen-rich

synthetic gas. The syngas is piped to the surface and undergoes

a number of cleaning processes before going through a water

gas shift reaction to enrich the hydrogen content of the gas

stream. The hydrogen is then extracted from the resultant gas by

pressure swing absorption, separating the gas into two streams,

one pure hydrogen and the other pure CO2. The hydrogen

stream will feed the high efficiency AFC Energy fuel cells,

generating electricity with water as a byproduct. By requiring

the output energy gases to be converted to obtain hydrogen, a

byproduct of this process is the free capture of CO2, usually the

most expensive component of CCS. At least 99 percent of the

carbon present in the syngas can be captured in this process and

is then available for storage.

Burning buried coal has ‘potential’

Tuesday, 6 October 2009 Gerard Wynn Reuters

In the future power stations could use gas extracted from seams

of coals deep underground to generate electricity, say experts

(Source: ABC) Burning coal underground could be one of the

next breakthroughs to increase the world’s energy supply, say

some experts. They say the technology could provide access to

additional coal reserves that are either too deep or remote to

mine. But the approach is so far untested on a commercial scale,

making the initial expense a concern for governments and

investors. “The potential is huge,” says Gordon Couch of the

International Energy Agency’s Clean Coal Centre.

“It needs a series of successful demonstrations. Despite 50 years

of trials no commercial use has been demonstrated. Current

pilots could result in commercial opportunities within five to seven

years.” Source of gas The technology involves injecting air or

oxygen into a coal seam, which is burned and heated to produce

and then pipe to the surface an energy-rich gas that contains

hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. The gas could be burned

to produce electricity or liquefied and turned into a liquid carbon

fuel. Alternatively, the hydrogen could be separated for a

transport fuel or used by the oil refining industry.

“We believe strongly that underground coal gasification (UCG)

is the next frontier for us,” says Dzung Nguyen from Canada’s

Alberta Energy Research Institute. “Thirty years ago no one had

heard of the oil sands industry, now it’s the biggest oil reserve in

North America,” he says, adding that investment had cut by one

third the cost of extracting heavy oil from sands in Alberta.

Successful UCG could access 628 billion tonnes of coal from

Alberta’s Mannville seam alone, which is 1400 metres

underground and too deep for mining, says Nguyen.

According to the IEA’s Couch, that compares with the current

global coal production of 6 billion tonnes a year. Climate change

Thomas Kempka from the German Research Centre for

Geosciences says half of Germany’s coal reserves are below

1500 metres and too deep for mining. He says, if developed on

a commercial scale, UCG would produce the world’s cheapest

electricity.

Researchers would have to overcome a number of hurdles, such

as the danger of contaminating groundwater, as well as the extra

greenhouse gas emissions from burning high-carbon coal.

“When you burn coal it produces benzenes, weird aromatic

compounds, tarry materials, ideally you want these generated in

a totally sealed way,” says Michael Stephenson, head of science

energy at the British Geological Survey.

He says, research has to establish whether heating coal

underground, cracking bedrock above and drawing in water, could

contaminate surface supplies. Greenhouse gas emissions from

the process could be cut by storing the carbon dioxide underground

using an equally experimental technology called carbon

capture and storage (CCS). “We see UCG and CCS together as

a bridging technology to the deployment of renewable energy”

such as wind and solar power, says Germany’s Kempka.

United States of America

Stealthy startup plans to fuel 1,000 MW of projects in

Canada as it gets exclusive license to underground

coal gasification technology for North America.

Houston, Texas-based Laurus Energy says it has the technology

to cheaply convert North America’s biggest asset into energy.

Three-year-old Laurus came out of stealth mode this week,

announcing it raised $8.5 million from Mohr Davidow Ventures

in April to build a business around underground coal gasification

(UCG) technology licensed from Ergo Exergy Technologies.

Laurus Energy’s exclusive rights for the North American market

give it access to technology already in use in South Africa, India

and Australia—technology unlike any other being used to produce

a natural gas equivalent, said Erik Straser, general partner

at Mohr Davidow Ventures and a board member at Laurus.

Deal done for underground coal gasification - Linc

move into US

By MJ Clark September 11, 2009

CASPER — GasTech Inc. of Casper has concluded a sale of coal

leases containing 7 billion tons of deep Powder River Basin coal

to Linc Energy of Brisbane, Australia.

As John Wold, CEO and chairman of GasTech, told the Wyoming

Business Report in 2006, “We’re talking about coal that can’t be

surface mined, nor can it be mined using conventional underground

processes. We believe 95 percent of Wyoming coal is too

deep to be extracted by conventional methods.”

“We’re fading away from the oil and gas era; we’ll go to nuclear

reactors again in the United States,” Wold predicted back in 2006,

“but we need a bridge between conventional oil and gas and

nuclear power plants, and that’s deep underground coal that can

be converted to clean diesel, for instance.”

Linc Energy has successfully operated Underground Coal

Gasifi cation (UCG) projects at Chincilla, Queensland, since 1999,

including the conversion of UCG “syngas” to clean diesel. Syngas

can be used for electricity generation and for liquid hydrocarbon

feedstocks. The carbon dioxide from the syngas can be captured

and sequestered or utilized in enhanced oil recovery projects.

Linc’s 7 billion tons of coal has the energy equivalent of more

than 20 billion barrels of oil.

In a company release today, Wold added, “The infrastructure

and coal resources of the PRB are unparalleled. Linc Energy is

bringing the technical skills to commercialize UCG, providing

many years of safe, economic production of energy. This development

is a great opportunity for Wyoming to transform the energy

landscape of the United States.”

According to the GasTech release, deep coals are the greatest

fossil fuel resource in the world, with an energy content conservatively

many times that of oil and gas. GasTech’s Steve Morzenti,

said that the deal was “like drilling the fi rst well in Jonah,” with

UCG providing roughly 300 times the amount of energy extracted

per ton of coal than via the coalbed methane process. While

GasTech sold the leases for 7 billion tons of PRB deep coal to

Linc Energy, it is retaining 100 percent interest in 12 billion addition

tons of PRB deep coal resources.

Coal in a black hole hiding as clean

Should the U.S. Build Its Next Coal Plants

Underground?

Might burning coal thousands of feet below the surface be the

secret to making coal climate friendly? That’s what fans of underground

coal gasifi cation will be saying this week at several sessions

and in the keynote speech at the International Pittsburgh

Coal Conference, which goes through Wednesday..

Momentum is growing worldwide to look closely at the idea, a

150-year-old technique of igniting seams of coal deep under the

ground to produce electrical power or chemicals. It’s a proven

technology: Joseph Stalin launched the fi rst national research

program into the idea in 1928 and the Soviets used it for 40 years

to produce power. Since then, cheap natural gas and shallow,

easy-to-mine coal burned in traditional power plants have prevented

the technique from taking off.

But gasifying coal underground is now a hot topic among power

companies and scientists, with at least 10 pilot projects around

the world planned or underway. The cost benefi ts and climate advantages

are among the reasons that fi ve countries run national

research programs on the technique; is the United States falling

behind on the next big fossil fuel technology?

Yes, says the nonprofi t Clean Air Task Force, a well-respected

public health and environment advocacy group, in a report issued

last week.

Recent studies suggest that energy obtained using the technique

would be cheaper than more popular methods of getting low

emissions coal power, like so-called Integrated Gasifi cation Combined

Cycle (IGCC), which involves gasifying coal above ground

in facilities like the FutureGen project, which the Bush Administration

proposed and then killed. The idea would also eliminate the

need for strip mining, which is environmentally harmful, or carbon

intensive shipping of mined coal.

“The enormous potential of underground coal gasifi cation to

meet rising energy demand in a CO2-constrained world warrants

a high priority effort by the United States government to speed

commercialization,” the Task Force study said. The advantages of

the techniques are myriad, says the Task Force, starting with the

fact that it’s a cleaner version of “clean coal” than other

techniques: [D]uring gasifi cation, roughly half of the sulfur,

mercury, arsenic, tar, ash, and particulates from the used coal

remain in the subsurface, and any sulfur or metals that reach

the surface arrive in a chemically reduced state, making them

relatively simple to remove.

So if underground coal gasifi cation is so great, why are commercial

projects exploiting the method so few and far in between?

Up till now, the reason is the availability of cheap energy using

other means, author Julio Friedmann of the Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory in California tells ScienceInsider. During the

late ‘70s energy crisis, the technology got several demonstrations

in the United States, but the coal industry stuck with the methods

it liked, especially because they owned rights for coal close to the

surface. Plentiful and cheap natural gas was a further

disincentive.

Now though, with natural gas prices rising and climate a central

concern, Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand, and South

Africa all have government-funded R&D projects in this area.

“China has minted 100 Ph.D.’s in this area,” says John Thompson,

director of the Task Force’s project on coal transformation. “We

are losing.” For its part, the report suggests DOE spend more

than $100 million over the next 4 years on science, development,

and demonstration efforts to try to catch up.

Experts Release Roadmap to Slash Cost of Carbon

Controls, Slow Climate Change

Tue Sep 15, 2009

Cost Cuts of 50% Possible For Low-Carbon Coal Technologies

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) today released its report “Coal

Without Carbon”, detailing federal policy recommendations to

lower the price of reducing carbon emissions from coal, a leading

leading cause of climate change. Study authors include

scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts

University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as well

as private power developers and experts from CATF.

The report comes as the U.S. Senate prepares to consider

groundbreaking climate change legislation. Controlling the costs

of the nation`s CO2 strategy is central to the debate. “Congress

must address coal in climate change legislation,” said John

Thompson, CATF director of the coal transition project. “Coal accounts

for 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and worldwide

coal use is expected to double in coming decades, even as we

dramatically increase energy efficiency and non-fossil fuel

energy use. There can be no answer to the global warming

problem unless coal emissions are cut.” The CATF study calls for

a more innovative approach to federal policy to advance

low carbon coal. Recommendations include:

* Rapid development and deployment of underground coal

gasification (UCG) to reduce carbon emissions and electricity

prices. UCG could reduce federal and state incentive costs by 50

percent or more from current cost estimates for coal gasification

with carbon storage. Julio Friedmann, of Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory, is the chapter author.

* Federal investment in post-combustion carbon controls to move

breakthrough technologies from the lab to commercial plant

scale. This technology will be required to lower carbon emissions

from the current global coal fleet. The report outlines development

of such advanced post-combustion carbon capture

technologies in an RD&D “pipeline”, with a focus on efficiency advantages

for existing plants. Howard Herzog and Alan Hatton of

MIT, and Jerry Meldon of Tufts University, are the chapter authors.

* Increased federal investment to commercialize the storage of

captured carbon dioxide deep below the Earth`s surface in brine

formations. The topic is addressed by Friedmann and fellow

Livermore scientist Robin Newmark. “Half of America`s electricity

comes from coal, and China has built enough new coal plants in

just the last five years to rival the size of the entire US coal

fleet. Realistically, coal will remain part of the world`s energy

mix in at least the near term,” Thompson added. “To prevent the

catastrophic effects of climate change, Congress must include

provisions to achieve dramatic reductions in coal`s carbon emissions,

including federal research to drive carbon capture and

storage costs down.”

Coal-fired power plant planned by CIRI

October 9, 2009 By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK

An Anchorage Native corporation said this morning it aims to

build a new electric power plant on the west side of Cook Inlet

— using coal instead of the region’s dwindling natural gas supply.

The 100-megawatt plant would rely on an emerging but proven

technology that doesn’t require the coal to be mined. Instead, the

coal would be transformed into gas underground, according to

officials from Cook Inlet Region Inc., which owns several hundred

thousand acres in the vast Beluga coal fields. CIRI proposes

drilling wells into coal seams, then injecting oxygen into those

wells, causing the coal to combust and become liquid gas. CIRI

would then convert the gas into electricity at the new power plant,

and sell the power to buyers in the region, such as utilities. In

the future, the CIRI project or similar projects in other Alaska

coal fields could be used to produce natural gas for heating

or export outside of Alaska, CIRI said. If the project is feasible

and obtains regulatory approval, CIRI hopes to start producing

gas in 2014. If the company can meet that aggressive timeline,

CIRI’s would be the first “underground coal gasification” (UGC)

plant in the country, said Ethan Schutt, the company’s senior

vice president for land and energy. UGC plants have been built

in Australia, South Africa and Eastern Europe. In North America,

UGC projects are also planned in Wyoming and Alberta, Canada.

CIRI began weighing the possibility of producing gas from Beluga

coal roughly a year ago, after some developers approached the

company to discuss UGC technology, Schutt said.

Vietnam

UCG project under way in Red River Delta

10/Oct/2009 Intellasia
The Asia Miner

LINC Energy has started development of an underground coal

gasification (UCG) project in the Red River Delta region of

Vietnam.Stage 1 of the Tonkin project involves development

and operation of a trial UCG field over the next 12 months.Initial

components of stage 1 involve finalizing investment licence

applications and engineering.The main aim of the Tonkin project

is to deliver power to more than 6 million households in Vietnam

using Linc’s UCG technology.Project partners are Australianbased

Linc Energy, Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, the Vietnam

National Coal - Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) and Song

Hong Energy, both from Vietnam.

The companies have agreed to a civil works contract and works

contract for stage 1.Linc will design, construct and operate a

trial UCG generator about 60km south-east of Hanoi.The trial

is designed to confirm that coal in the Red River Delta region is

suitable for gasification using UCG technology.Linc’s chief executive

officer Peter Bond says, “The finalization of these contracts

is a major step for Linc Energy towards its goal of bringing power

generation fuelled by competitively priced UCG synthesis gas to

countries like Vietnam that have increasing demands for power

supply.”Our work in Vietnam will further demonstrate the potential

for UCG to be the next major energy source for the world.”We

look forward to bringing this project to commercialization and

continuing our strong working relationships with our Vietnamese

and Japanese partners.” Linc aims to achieve its vision by bringing

together, for the first time in the world, two proven production

process known as underground coal gasification clean coal

technology and gas to liquids.These processes will economically

convert vast ‘stranded’ coal deposits into ultra clean liquid

fuelsLinc will use the Syngas produced from UCG clean coal

technology as feedstock for gas turbines to generate electricity.

CCS News

Clean Coal a Step Nearer

Engineering Capacity, 27th July 2009

Doosan Babcock has announced a major step towards making

full-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) a reality with

the opening of the world’s largest clean combustion test facility.

CCS is a vital part of the ongoing balanced energy portfolio and

will play a large role in reducing UK emissions This project marks

an important milestone in the development of CCS and will help

the UK secure its share of the estimated £2-4 billion a year created

by the global CCS market by 2030. The Renfrew test facility

was opened by Joan Ruddock MP, the Minister of State for the

Department of Energy & Climate Change.

The new facility is demonstrating Doosan Babcock’s

OxyCoal™Clean Combustion system for the first time on a fullsize

40MWth burner. The OxyCoal™ technology being demonstrated

at the site will be suitable for future installation in new or

existing coal power plants. The project is a collaboration between

Doosan Babcock, the UK Government (DECC), a prime sponsor

Scottish and Southern Energy, a group of seven sponsors (Air

Products, Drax, DONG, EDF, E.ON, ScottishPower and Vattenfall),

and is also supported by UK Coal.

Energy Minister Joan Ruddock, said “Cleaning up coal power is

a must if we’re to meet our climate change goals whilst keeping

the lights on. The development of CCS offers high quality jobs

and export opportunities for the UK which is why we’re supporting

this OxyCoal project with £2.2 million of funding. Our proposals

on coal are some of the most radical in the world and will help

ensure the UK leads the way on CCS.”

Iain Miller, CEO of Doosan Babcock, said “The OxyCoal™ project

places Doosan Babcock at the forefront of carbon capture development

and we are delighted to acknowledge the positive high

level endorsement of the project by DECC and our sponsors. The

demonstration has been made a reality by the hard work of our

project team and will enable Doosan Babcock, as a key carbon

capture innovator, to lead the field both at a UK and global level in

the future. With our product portfolio now including both OxyCoal

and Post Combustion Capture technologies, Doosan Babcock

will be ready to deliver very low emission power technology to

our customers around the world as fast as the market for these

products becomes available.”

Ian Marchant, Chief Executive, Scottish and Southern Energy,

said “The Low Carbon Transition Plan announced last week sets

a great deal of store by the successful deployment of carbon

capture and storage technology. The pace of progress in recent

years has been disappointing, but I hope that renewed impetus

from government allied to the type of co-operation evident in

the OxyCoal project will bring us closer to the ultimate goal of

successful deployment of large-scale carbon capture and storage

technology here in the UK and elsewhere.”

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/08/10/46-energy-frontier-researchcenters-

funded-by-doe/ - comments#comments

46 Energy Frontier Research Centres to be funded

by the DOE.

Posted in alternative energy, technology, wind energy

Written by Yael Borofsky Published on August 10th, 2009

Cleantechnica.com

After a White House announcement last April regarding the

provision of $777 million to fund 46 Energy Frontier Research

Centers (EFRC’s) advancing innovation in clean energy technology,

the Department of Energy (DOE) recognized the completion

of the funding process last Thursday. The investment represents a

much-needed show of governmental support for the research and

development of the numerous energy breakthroughs necessary

to transition the U.S from dirty to clean energy.

Among the list of 46, 31 centers are affiliated with universities,

twelve are DOE national laboratories, two are non-profit organizations,

and one is a corporate research laboratory. In total, the

DOE has awarded $377 million in funding this year, with $277

million coming from the economic stimulus package (American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act -ARRA) and the additional $100

million provided by the DOE’s FY2009 budget. The full $777 million

promised in April will be partially allocated over five years to

30 of the institutions in increments of $2-5 million per institution

($100 million per year) while 16 institutions have received five

years of funding up front ($277 million from ARRA).

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who made the announcement last

week, drew attention to the need to pursue clean energy innovation

and breakthroughs in clean energy technology. Over the five

year period, the projects will employ 1,800 people focused on

solar energy, biofuels, transportation, energy efficiency, electricity

storage and transmission, clean coal and carbon capture and

sequestration (CCS), and nuclear energy.

In light of the limited funding available for ARPA-E (Advanced

Research Projects Agency-Energy) - which rejected 98% of applicants

to its July call for “transformational energy proposals” - and

the disappointing bumping of RE-ENERGYSE from the FY2010

energy budget, Chu’s announcement could be a harbinger of at

least some promising improvements in the clean tech worldAs

the time approaches for the Senate to make a decision on Waxman

and Markey’s controversial American Clean Energy and

Security Act (H.R. 2454 - ACES), it remains to be seen whether

Congress heeds Chu’s (and others’) call for more aggressive efforts

to usher in a revolution in clean energy technology.

Pipeline Would Carry Midwest CO2 to Gulf Coast’s

Oil Fields

By PHIL TAYLOR: October 13, 2009

Midwestern states are working with energy companies to overcome

one of the biggest obstacles to carbon capture and storage:

finding ways to transport the gas from its industrial source to

its final resting place. The Midwestern Governors Association

last week announced a goal to site and permit by 2012 at least

one interstate pipeline to ferry global warming pollution from the

region’s power plants to suitable underground storage sites.

The goal was among several laid out in the Midwestern Energy

Infrastructure Accord aiming to transform the region’s coal-rich

states into hubs for CCS technology.

An early step in the accord involves the development of a pipeline

that would move carbon dioxide from capture-ready coal plants

in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast for use in

enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Denbury Resources Inc., a Texasbased

oil and gas company, announced in July that it was conducting

a feasibility study into a 500-mile Midwest pipeline that

would link the proposed plants to the company’s production fields

in Mississippi. The company said it could build the estimated $1

billion pipeline at a profit -- and without government subsidies

-- if at least three commercial-scale coal gasification plants in the

region supplied CO2.

Four proposed gasification facilities have signed conditional

agreements to supply CO2 to the pipeline, Denbury said, including

ones near Rockport, Ind., and Owensboro, Ky., and one each

in Jefferson and Christian counties in Illinois. Each would capture

between 50 percent and 90 percent of emissions. While none

of the plants has entered construction, the Indiana project and

one of the Illinois projects are in negotiations for Department of

Energy loan guarantees, Denbury said. “We offer these industrial

users the most practical and economical way to sequester CO2,”

Denbury CEO Phil Rykhoek said in a statement. “And we benefit

as we will use their CO2 to further increase our domestic oil

production.”

Enhanced oil recovery pumps CO2 into underground oil reservoirs

to push previously unrecoverable oil to the surface. It can

increase productivity in some wells by up to 60 percent of the

original amount of recoverable oil, according to Energy Department

estimates. An optimistic DOE assessment pegged recoverable

EOR reserves in the United States at 88 billion barrels out

of the 330 billion barrels of oil remaining. Enhanced oil recovery

production from CO2 was 75 million barrels per year in 2004.

Denbury, which owns the largest carbon dioxide reserves east of

the Mississippi River used for EOR, is already working on the 24-

inch-diameter, 300-mile Green Pipeline to move CO2 from Texas

plants to increase oil production in the state.

If built, the Midwest pipeline would become the first of its kind in

the eastern United States to transport large quantities of CO2

from power plants and would represent a major step in an effort

to decarbonize the area’s coal. It would also signal a head start

for coal-reliant states looking for a way to keep the fossil fuel

affordable if Congress passes legislation to cap greenhouse gas

emissions.”Our neighbors are doing the same thing in planning

this new generation of coal,” said Brandon Seitz, director of

Indiana’s Office of Energy Development. The 12-state Midwest

region generates 71 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power

plants, according to MGA. In contrast, the national average is 49

percent. The stakes for CCS are even higher in Indiana, which

gets 95 percent of its electricity from coal and holds about 400

years’ worth of reserves at today’s production, Seitz said.”The

bottom line is, we can’t just shut down our economy,” Seitz said.

“The pipeline idea holds a lot of promise, and I think there’s a lot

of private-sector interest.”Companies looking to develop captureready

coal plants need guarantees that there will be an affordable

way to get emissions to storage sites, said John Thompson,

director of the Coal Transition Project at the Clean Air Task Force.

But firms like Denbury also need assurance that plants will be

able to supply enough CO2 to make pipeline projects worth their

investment.”There’s a certain chicken-or-egg dilemma,” Thompson

said. “In order for companies to build new gasification plants, you

have to have a CO2 solution. But no one plant is big enough to

justify building a pipeline of this size.”

Events

2009

October

UCGP Visit to Australia

20th October- 18th November

Julie Lauder will be visiting Australia for an extended trip that will

include Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

During this time she will highlight the Partnership to enlist support

and new members. She will be in the Brisbane area for two

weeks to meet with interested parties and members to begin

work on the forthcoming UCG Australia Conference 2010.

Please contact Julie should you wish to arrange a meeting or

have suggestions or contacts that you feel would benefit either

the partnership and/or the event.

julie.lauder@ucgp.com

IEA, International Conference on Coal Science &

Technology (ICCS&T)

Cape Town, South Africa 26th 29th Oct 09,

http://www.iccst.info/live/index.php

12th Vietnam OGP (Oil Gas & Power)

Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam 28th 29th

October 2009

http://www.cmtevents.com/?ev=091040&st=46

December

Asia Pacific Coal Outlook Conference 2009

Conrad Bali, Tanjung Benoa, Bali, Indonesia December 1-3, 2009

2010

March

5th UCGP International Conference & Workshop

London 23rd - 24th March 2010

September

8th European Conference on Coal Research and its

Applications: ECCRIA 8

Leeds, 6th – 8th September 2010

www.eccria.org

October

27th International Pittsburgh Coal Conference

Istanbul, Turkey 11th -14th October 2010

www.engr.pitt.edu/pcc/

October/November

UCGP International Conference, Brisbane, Australia

October/November 2010.

ucgp News

UCG Regulations and Licensing

UCGP have been invited by a number of regulatory authorities to assist in the development and formulation of UCG licensing and regulations.

Most countries do not have ready-made licensing for UCG and we can assist. It is our pleasure to engage with regulators at an

early stage to ensure that every issue likely to come up is dealt with. If you would like us to assist please let us know. We have extensive

information on this subject as a result of previous discussions with regulators around the world. Our knowledge base covers permitting,

environmental and health and safety issues. UCGP continues to expand and extend involvement in the industry. We are working on a

standard method of valuation for UCG assets, which is particularly important when members are seeking financing for their projects. This

should be available soon. We encourage exchange of information on project results and also note the concerns our members have and

the problems they come across. Recently we have been reviewing water consumption by those involved in methane extraction and the

impact on the in-situ coal site left behind. We always welcome enquiries from our members or prospective members and are here to help.

UCGP Chapters and Membership Expansion

We continue to work towards establishing UCG chapters in key global locations, namely, USA, South Africa, Australia and China.

We have been offered considerable support from members in these regions and will update you on any significant developments.

However, we are requesting that members please pass on any contacts they may know or have worked with who may benefit from joining

the partnership. We are especially keen to engage with those that we see as integral to the supply chain. Please pass on any details and

contacts to Julie Lauder – julie.lauder@ucgp.com

UCGP to change legal status to a charity

As we reported in the last two Newsletters, the UCG Partnership with the support of the Advisory Council has been looking at changing

its status from a limited company to a UK Registered Charity. The name will change to the UCG Association and the focus will very much

be on Training and Information sharing, plus support for Public Information and outreach programmes to educate on the uses of coal

We are delighted to have the continued assistance and help of the legal firm Nabarro LLP who are a Founding Member, Nabarro kindly

agreed to undertake this work on a pro bono basis..All the documentation has been submitted and we now just patiently await the outcome.

All members will be notified as soon as a decision has been made. So far most of the legal documentation has been completed and

all the necessary forms signed . The new Trustees of the Association will be:

Don Kinnersley, Deloitte,

Prof. Peter Styles, Keele University,

Dr Cliff Mallett, Carbon Energy,

Rohan Courtney, Clean Coal (Chairman),

Dr Michael Green, UCG Engineering,

Kenneth Fergusson, UCG Partnership

UCGP Research Group

Prof Peter Styles, who is the Chair for the Research Group continues to closely work with other research members on several EU funding

initiatives for UCG. One area is a proposal for a Marie Curie Training Network, if any EU members are interested in finding how they can

support this please contact Dr Sharon George via email, sharon.george@novasci.co.uk

The group also are developing a project website, www.co2al.eu,that will be a resource for 2 EU projects that they hope will be funded to

disseminate results, promote projects etc. If you have any research ideas or information that you would like to share with him or others in

this group please contact Prof. Styles in the first instance. Email: p.styles@esci.keele.ac.uk

We thank Peter for his continued efforts and support

UCG Reserves Initiative

As reported in the last issue, UCGP is currently working with a selected group of members, all of whom have experience in this area, to

research a method and criteria to place a reliable valuation on any potential UCG resource. The findings will be made available to members

and there will of course be scope for discussions and further input.

Your articles, presentations and expertise.

If you have written an article, paper, presented or come across an article of interest please do share it.

We will happily place all pertinent information on the UCGP website or include it in the newsletter.

UCGP Reports

HUGE Coordination Meeting 4th September 2009

The meeting was held to discuss the experimental phase of the project which is now underway. Ex-situ gasification tests on large blocks

of hard and lignite coal above ground have been undertaken and preparations are almost complete for the underground gasification tests

in the Polish experimental mine. These will be complemented with gasification tests under pressure at the Liege facility. The aim is to

maximise hydrogen production by dynamic operation of the process. The project is on target for completion mid 2010.

3rd UCG Training Course 14th -18th September 2009

Course No.1/09 - UCG Basic, Imperial College London,

Our second residential training course in conjunction with Imperial College London, had an impressive international mix of attendees,

from differing age groups and backgrounds. The differing levels of experience and knowledge made for an interesting week and with delegates

from Brazil, Columbia, South Africa, Australia, Ireland and the UK the week was set to be enlightening and informative as much

was gleaned from the experiences and input of the delegates as the expert lecturers.

The one week course covered all aspects of UCG including site selection criteria, site appraisal, coal geology and hydrogeology, directional

drilling and coiled tube drilling, completions, environmental impact assessments, public perceptions, fuel cells, CCS and economics.

It also introduced the basic principles of underground coal gasification, and what is required of the coal and overburden to establish

a satisfactory commercial process. The course was delivered by staff of Imperial College London, UCGP officers and expert external

speakers. The course finished with an open discussion session which was extremely useful for those involved in producing the course

as the attendees enjoyment and level of information exchange had surpassed our own expectations. The full course programme, course

attendees and biographies of lecturers and presenters can be found on the UCGP website

We have received many emails from the participants, all thanking us for what was an enjoyable and informative course. We know that

many have formed professional relationships, which only adds to the value of attending a UCG Training Course. Below the Training

Course attendees with Julie Lauder, Marcos Millan and Rohan Courtney

Report on the 26th Pittsburgh Coal Conference 20 -23 September 09

Julie Lauder and Rohan Courtney both presented at the UCG Tutorial, Rohan also chaired the Tutorial and co-chaired two of the UCG

sessions during the main conference.The workshop was the second organised by UCGP and very well attended, particularly gratifying as

it had to be held a day early on a Sunday to accommodate the invasion, later in the week, of the G20 meeting.

Our thanks to Burl Davis (Carbon Energy) , Jonathan Lightfoot (Scientific Drilling), Rachid Oukaci (Energy Technology Partners LLC),

David Camp and Julie Friedmann (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) and Mary Bloomstran (Edge Environmental) for their outstanding

presentations. The Tutorial programme covered the cost of UCG, Environmental and Licensing, Drilling Techniques,

In the main section of the Conference there were fourteen presentations on UCG in three sessions. UCG has become a major topic at this

important conference and is set to continue. One of note given by Mike Fowler of the Clean Air Task Force called for government support

of UCG as a secure answer to US energy requirements. All Presentations from the UCG Tutorial will be available in the members section

of the UCGP website shortly. Presentations from the main conference can be obtained from IPCC.

Westminster Energy Forum, London 23rd September 09 - attended by Kenneth Fergusson

The theme was: “Challenges in the delivery of new energy infrastructure” whilst UCG was not on the agenda it was of interest to see if

the challenges facing these technologies were similar to those facing UCG. There were about 120 attendees representing varied energy

and financial companies, all UK based. The first speaker was Andrew Crone, Chief Editor of “New Energy Finance”, who spoke about the

financeability of “clean” energy around the world, but this mostly addressed renewable which benefit from support of governments..Planning

issues, by Richard Mellish, Director, Planning and Consents at DECC, described how the new IPC (Independent Planning Commission)

will speed up approval of major projects.

Trade-offs and challenges for National Grid was presented by Chris Bennett, Future Transmission Networks Manager.

Paul Willson of PB Power spoke about “Defining the generating capacity gap”, Lastly, John Roberts from Willis, Construction Risks,

described how major projects, especially if there was a first-of-a-kind component, must work alongside insurers to get the best insurance

premiums. Something that may also be pertinent to UCG.

UCG Global Summit, London 5th 7th October – attended by Julie Lauder

This was the first time an outside conference on UCG has been staged in London and it offered a comprehensive programme.

The two day event was superbly chaired by Michael Stephenson, head of Science Energy, the British Geological Survey.

Day one began with a presentation from Gordon Couch of the IEA, who gave an overview of the recent report he has compiled on UCG,

which is available from the IEA website. This was followed by an excellent presentation from Justyn Peters of Linc Energy, who reported

on the increasing projects around the world that Linc are embarking on and their strategy for successful growth. Thomas Kempa, presented

on UCG CCS, another excellent presentation and a topic that Thomas is currently researching. This was followed by Newcastle

University’s, Dermot Roddy who gave a North East England case study on UCG CCS. Dzung Nguyen from Alberta, gave an encouraging

address highlighting the work and interest of UCG in this region.

Julie Lauder presented an overview of the work of the UCG Partnership including Public Perceptions issues and the requirements for

delivery of integrated projects. The day finished with a look at the geological factors for UCG in the UK by the chair, which was pertinent

as BGS undertook a study on coal deposits suitable for UCG in the UK. The evening dinner workshop by UCGP was informative though

it was hard to have in depth discussions whilst eating. Dr Michael Green, Rohan Courtney and Shaun Lavis from Clean Coal were the

speakers. The topics covered were the History of UCG, the Economics of UCG and Site Selection Criteria.

Day two had presentations from LLNL’s Elizabeth Burton – Improving the Predictability of Gas Production and Environmental Consequences

of Operations, Poland was represented by Jan Ragout plus an update on the EU Huge project by Krzysztof Stanczyk, Rakesh

Sharma presented on ONCG’s UCG experience and Karol Kostur from Slovakia spoke on the importance of Pre project research and

evaluation. Johan Brand from South Africa who now has his own UCG company, African Carbon Energy since leaving Sasol,presented on

Project Planning and Modelling of UCG projects. This generated lots of questions as Johan has extensive UCG experience.

The event finished with a round table discussion which showed that all attendees had learnt much from the event, for UCGP it was extremely

pleasing to see so many old friends and so much interest.

BCURA Lecture 12th October 2009

UCG Partnership and several members were present at the prestigious annual lecture given by Neville Holt of the Electrical Power Research

Institute. His theme was the role of gasification in carbon capture and storage. He outlined the key role that CCS must play in the

reduction of CO2 emissions, and pointed out the urgency required to fully commercialise the technology post 2020. China and the US will

determine the rate at which this takes place and Emissions from coal, particularly in China are only about 50% from power stations; the

remainder is its use in heating and chemical manufacturer which also need to be addressed.

Some of the benefits of Membership

· A network of contacts of individuals, companies and public organisations involved in UCG

· Regular newsletter and updates on new and existing UCG projects around the world

· Employment Register and Job opportunities in UCG

· Investment Opportunities described on the website

· Access to a complete and unique online archive information on all UCG from early days

· Focal point for all information relevant to UCG for members through email, website and seminars, and access to an

inter-active website.

· Public and independent information service on UCG and representation at the highest level

· Early advice and “clearing house” for UCG on financial and technical aspects of UCG projects,

through contacts with energy companies, banking and project finance specialists

· Feasibility studies, collaborative development and other study programmes on UCG

· Tailored support from UCG Partnership for seminars, training courses, work shops (at additional cost)

· Listings of member companies and website exposure

Membership Fees:

Free Conference Places Annual Membership Fee

Founder Members - Unlimited negotiable

Academic Members - Two places £1,000 + VAT

General Members (100 + employees) - Six places £5,000 + VAT

(50 – 100 employees) - Four places £3,000 + VAT

(20 – 50 employees) - Three places £2,000 + VAT

(10 - 20 employees) - Two places £1,500 + VAT

(Individual or less than 10 employees) - One place £750 + VAT

Reciprocal - One place nil

Contact Us:

Elizabeth House,

Duke Street,

Woking,

Surrey

GU21 5AS

Phone: +44 (0)1252 661978

Fax: +44 (0)1483 851170

Email :info@ucgp.com

www.ucgp.com

2010-01-31T16:02:00.001-08:00

ucgp UPDATE

Newsletter for Members of UCG Partnership

ISSUE 13 July 2009

New UCG Training Course for 2009

14th – 18th September 2009

UCGP Training Course No 1/09 on UCG (Basic)

Imperial College London

We have now finalised the complete course details and are delighted to announce the inclusion of Dr. Jon

Gibbons to the team of experts from Imperial College London, who will present on CCS aspects of UCG.

The course will be very similar in format and content as the successful 2008 training course with Imperial

College and will outline basic UCG methodology. There are now only a few places left on the course so if

you are interested in attending or would like more information please contact julie.lauder@ucgp.com

For more details go to: http://www.ucgp.com/ucg-partnership/training/

UCGP International Conferences 2010

Following consultation with UCGP members and the UCGP Advisory

Council, with so much UCG activity and interest around the world more events

are now required and we need to include more locations. With that in mind we are

delighted to announce our conference plans for 2010.

5th International Conference and Workshop on

Underground Coal Gasification,

London 23rd – 24th March 2010

and

1st UCGP International Conference,

Brisbane, Australia

October/November 2010

Such was the success of the last event that our main sponsor, Deloitte has already given their support for

the next annual UCGP Conference 2010. So the definitive conference on Underground Coal Gasification will

once again be held at the prestigious London location, Deloitte Auditorium, New Street Square. Our 5th

Conference has been extended to a 2.5 day event. A half day presentation on the EU HUGE Project will be

on Monday 22nd March, preceding the Workshop Day and Conference. If you are interested in presenting,

please send us your abstract or enquiry.

UCGP International Conference on Underground Coal

Gasification and Bloodwood Creek site visit, Australia

2010

We will be holding a second event in Brisbane, Australia in October/November 2010, date to be finalised,

and our first major event outside of the UK. The event will include presentations and updates from many of

our Australia members as well as global updates and will continue the related work from the recent Clean

Coal Networking mission.

A key feature of the event will be a site visit to the Carbon Energy Bloodwood Creek UCG facility, a must for

all in UCG and associated technologies.We are already speaking with many who have expressed an interest

in taking part in both events but welcome suggestions and input from members and affiliates, especially

if you have any contacts who may be interested in the opportunity of sponsorship.

As yet no decision has been made as to whether both events will be free to UCGP members or if there

will be a need to charge an attendance fee, hence the interest in sponsors. It may be that both events will

be free of charge but a token charge may be made for networking events. We will keep you all updated on

progress of both events and hope that you will look forward to them with as much excitement as us.

Not a member? Join Today! If you or one of your colleagues would

like to join us we offer not only the chance to add your voice to a

growing number working in the same sector but opportunity

to engage in projects at an early stage.

News from Around the World

AUSTRALIA

World-first clean coal plant could increase Australia’s

energy security

PACE 24 April 2009

Linc Energy Limited has opened the world’s first demonstration

plant in Chinchilla designed to educate the industry about the

advantages of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) technology

– a coal-to-liquids process to convert vast ‘stranded’ coal deposits

into ultra clean liquid fuels.

Linc Energy’s Chinchilla Demonstration Plant in Queensland

is now producing clean synthetic diesel and jet fuel from gas

sourced from deep underground coal reserves, following the

plant’s first production in October 2008. The facility has gained

huge attention from media and government – both local and

from overseas – which have hailed the plant as “unique” and

“world-class”.

Vietnamese Government Ministers and Vice Ministers, representatives

from Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and business

supporters from South Africa and the United States gathered in

Chinchilla to mark the official opening of the world’s first Underground

Coal Gasification (UCG) to Gas to Liquids (GTL) facility.

“Linc Energy’s facility is truly unique; the only one of its kind,

complete with UCG gas field, a Fischer-Tropsch (FT) GTL plant

and an on-site, world-class laboratory,” said Linc Energy’s chief

executive officer, Peter Bond.

Linc Energy is an Australian-owned energy company and a leader

in clean coal technology. The company’s vision is to become

a dominant player in the supply of more environmentally-friendly

power, diesel and jet fuel. The company’s facility brings together,

for the first time anywhere in the world, the two proven production

processes known as Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) clean

coal technology and Gas to Liquids (GTL). These processes will

economically convert vast ‘stranded’ coal deposits into ultra clean

liquid fuels.

Linc Energy will also use the Syngas produced from UCG clean

coal technology as feedstock for gas turbines to generate much

needed environmentally friendly electricity.

The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP,

officially launched the demonstration plant this month. “Australia

is coal and gas rich, with hundreds of years of reserves.

Technologies that convert coal and gas to ultra-clean diesel

and jet fuel have the potential to replace Australia’s declining

oil reserves and make us self-sufficient in liquid transport

fuels once again,” he said.

“A domestic synthetic fuels industry would reduce - and maybe

even one day remove - our growing trade deficit in petroleum

products which last year grew to almost $15 billion. This

technology unlocks energy from Australia’s significant stranded

and uneconomic coal reserves and has the potential to

dramatically reduce Australia’s dependence upon imported oil

and refined products.”

According to Linc Energy, the technology could increase Australia’s

energy security, by producing environmentally-friendly fuels

containing almost zero sulphur and no aromatics, with a carbon

footprint comparable with the production of conventional fuels.

If gas-to-liquids takes off, it could open-up opportunities for jobs,

exports, revenue and economic growth – particularly in regional

communities, Ferguson said.

Liberty completes Queensland acquisition

By: Esmarie Swanepoel 23rd April 2009

(miningweekly.com)

Perth-based Liberty Resources reported this week that it had

completed the acquisition of Queensland tenements covering

shallow and deep coal, potentially suitable for underground coal

gasification (UCG). Liberty now owns 100% of tenement areas

covering about 26 000 km2 in the Surat, Galilee, and Bowen basins.

“This heralds a new phase of growth for the company. While

we acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead, we also see the

substantial growth opportunity in joining the leaders of a rapidly

developing, clean energy industry in Australia,” said company MD

Andrew Haythorpe.

The transaction followed the acquisition of four Australian private

companies that held exploration permits for coal applications

(EPCAs) and exploration permits for coal (EPCs), in Queensland.

Liberty now hold 11 granted EPCs, a mineral development lease

(MDL) and 28 EPCAs awaiting offer for grant. An estimated 4,

2-billion tons of coal occurs within the shallow part of the Surat

basin, adjacent to the EPCA areas. The MDL application covers

inferred resource of an estimated 338-million tons of thermal coal

in its Galilee project.

Cougar, Ignite talk UCG joint venture

Source: News Bites

Cougar Energy Ltd and Ignite Energy Resources are negotiating

a joint venture over the phased development of potential underground

coal gasification (UCG) project in Victoria’s Gippsland

region. Cougar and Ignite had previously worked on the project

under a memorandum of understanding.

The proposed joint venture is expected to be in the form of a

farm-in agreement which will enable Cougar to carry out a drilling

program on mutually agreed areas within EL4416 to define

suitable UCG deeper coal resources that would not normally be

exploited by Ignite on a conventional mining basis.

Underground coal gasification is the process by which coal is

converted in situ into a combustible gas that can be used as a

fuel or a chemical feedstock. It has the potential to exploit coal

resources that are either inaccessible or uneconomic using

conventional mining methods.

Cougar Energy has 2009 milestone for Kingaroy

UCG plant

Monday, June 15, 2009

Cougar Energy is on track with its Underground Coal Gasification

(UCG) project near Kingaroy in Queensland. Work is progressing

on a pre-production burn being commissioned later in 2009,

as the first stage in development of a 400MW power plant using

UCG gas as the fuel source. Recently, Cougar raised $4.2 million

to primarily advance the Kingaroy UCG project and specifically

for the construction of the UCG Pilot Plant facility due to commence

operations later this year.

The UCG process converts coal in-situ into a gas which can be

used as a fuel for power generation or for conversion into a range

of petrochemical products and gas-to-liquids solutions.

The Kingaroy power station will generate an electricity supply

for 400,000 homes for at least 30 years. Costs of producing the

power are significantly lower than natural gas supplied power stations

and carbon emissions are estimated to be 25% lower than

conventional coal-fired stations. Final development timetable and

go ahead for the construction and commissioning of the proposed

power plant at Kingaroy is dependent on Queensland Government

approval of underground coal gasification and Cougar

Energy Limited’s program of commercial development.

A second Queensland UCG project is targeted by Cougar, with a

new drilling program having commenced at the company’s Wandoan

lease (EPC 1118) in the Surat Basin. The Wandoan drilling

program is designed to establish an initial JORC compliant coal

resource of between 200 million and 300 million tonnes.

Eneabba leads the pack in bid to provide

“clean” energy

Newstore, com.au, 29 Apr 2009

Western Australian based energy company Eneabba Gas Limited,

has, as a result of careful planning and a number of recent

significant company generated developments, further cemented

its position as the only viable provider of cost effective “clean”

energy to the Mid West region of Western Australia.

Since 2005 Eneabba Gas and its technical consultants have diligently

progressed plans for its proposed 168MW Centauri 1 gas

fired power station project, located on company owned land eight

kilometres east of Dongara and approximately 365 kms north of

Perth in Western Australia.

These activities have at all times centered on the objective of

becoming the leading supplier of cost effective, low carbon emission,

“clean” energy to companies and organisations wishing to

develop major mining and industrial projects in Western Australia’s

rapidly developing Midwest region, not limited to but likely to

include a range of iron ore mining companies developing projects

in the region.

In the past twelve months the Company has stepped up its activities

regarding the development of the Centauri 1 power station

and to date is the ONLY energy company in the region to receive

the various Government approvals needed for the rapid development

of this vital piece of infrastructure, including Planning Approval

from the Shire of Irwin, Environmental Protection Authority

(EPA) and Department of Industry and Resources (DoIR).

In addition, Eneabba Gas is also the ONLY holder of an Economic

Regulation Authority (ERA) generation licence in the Mid West

region - a licence needed to commence power generation.

A vital milestone in the development of the Centauri 1 Power Station

has at all times been access to an uninterrupted gas supply.

This was confirmed on 1 April 2009, when the Company reached

agreement with fellow Australian company Carbon Energy Limited

to jointly develop an underground coal gasification (“UCG’)

project to supply the power station.

Under the terms of this agreement, Carbon Energy will acquire a

substantial coal exploration area in Western Australia from Eneabba

Gas, and will execute a 30 year Gas Supply Agreement with

Eneabba Gas to supply a minimum of 15 TJ per day (up to 45 TJ

per day) of UCG Syngas for the Centauri 1 Power Station.

This agreement, which is subject to due diligence and the final

results of a drilling programme, is expected to be finalised by

mid-year.

Cooking with gas and looking like a winner

Article from: The Australian May 20, 2009

After passing through the Maryborough cane fields and Bundaberg

Rum distilleries, the Bruce Highway travels north to Gladstone,

home of Queensland’s next important industry.

Nominated to host liquefied natural gas processing plants proposed

by the likes of Santos, Origin Energy, Arrow Energy and

British Gas, the region is set to become a leading natural gas export

base. According analyst Tim Morris, these projects will open

up new market opportunities for local gas producers: “To date,

a lack of infrastructure has suppressed east coast gas prices

below regional benchmarks in Asia. However the construction of

LNG processing facilities in Queensland could see international

demand start to influence local gas prices.”

Underpinning these LNG proposals are gas resources in underground

coal seams. Morris says there are two main methods for

extracting the gas, which is usually too deep for mining. “After

years of trial and error, coal seam gas has now become a wellaccepted

production method. Less established is underground

coal gasification, which is being pioneered by Carbon Energy.”

With a 668 million-tonne coal resource in the Surat Basin, Carbon

Energy aims to commercialise the contained gas using technology

developed by the CSIRO. Morris says that production trials

are proving successful. “Extraction rates averaging 20gigajoules

of gas per tonne of coal have been achieved using the UCG

technology. These initial production rates are on par with existing

CSG producers, confirming the company’s potential to establish

commercial energy supplies,” he says. Carbon Energy isn’t

relying on big LNG projects for gas sales. Instead it is targeting

incremental production growth in domestic power markets, Morris

says. “Given the size of its Surat Basin resource and the modular

nature of the CSIRO technology, production is very scalable while

capital requirements are modest,” he says. “As gas pipelines

already run through its tenements, infrastructure isn’t a problem.”

Further upgrade to Rey Resources’ Duchess Coal

resource cheered by investors.

Wotnews.com Monday, June 01, 2009

Total JORC resources at Rey Resources Ltd (have been at been

upgraded to 511 million tonnes (up from 498 million tonnes) at

the Duchess Paradise coal project in the Canning Basin, Western

Australia. Investors liked the news with the shares up 12%.

The area has been chronically under-explored for major coal

systems; this is the first systematic exploration of the area by Rey

Resources. Indicated resource increased by 51% to 144 million

tonnes thermal coal.

A pre-feasibility study, to evaluate if a commercial mining operation

can be sustained on the resource. The study is focusing

initially on selecting the higher quality, near surface areas of coal

within the approximately half billion tonnes of resource that has

been reported. The study is due for completion by the end of

2009.

Rey Resources believes that an initial open pit operation of

approximately 2Mtpa coal can be exported via the port of

Derby with production commencing in 2012. A larger exporting

operation using a new deepwater port site at Point Torment, 180

kilometres to the north will be evaluated. The Underground Coal

Gasification (UCG) potential of the deeper coals is also being

investigated.

Significant opportunity at our doorstep,’ says Devco

president

Greg McNeil, Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — Eggs, sausage and the clean energy potential of the

Sydney coalfields were on the menu of the Scotiabank Breakfast

Series hosted by the Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce,

Wednesday.

Ross McCurdy, president and CEO of the Cape Breton Development

Corp., was the guest speaker for the event and spoke of opportunities

other than mining. “We have a significant opportunity

at our doorstep,” he said of energy potential equal to the Alberta

oil sands. “Most of the coal is offshore, so underground mining is

not practical. We are advocating mining the energy, not the coal

— leave the coal in the ground.” McCurdy pointed to methane

gas, biomining and the most practical local application,

underground coal gasification, as potential opportunities.

There are currently six major players in the underground

gasification industry, he said.

One of the two that has expressed interest in the Sydney

coalfields has already visited the area. “When they were made

aware of the Sydney coalfield, its potential and the extent of it,

they became very interested,” McCurdy said without revealing the

company name. “I guess really they can see there is a potential

to have a viable business here and it probably makes sense.”

Similar systems are already at work in Alberta, Russia and Australia.

As for cost, a Wyoming underground coal gasification plant

began with a $600-million capital investment and is employing

90-150 people full-time. Funding of any local ventures is purely

speculative at this point. McCurdy said a company would first

have to step forward and develop their business case.

If a company does decide to proceed, coalfield development

could begin as early as 2010. “I think technology is far enough

advanced today that allows us to mine the energy and not necessarily

the coal. We can do this in a way to create some of the

cleanest energy that exists in the world today.”Knowledge-based

skills will be required during the development of these opportunities,

he said.

Once Devco ceases to exist in five years, Cape Breton University

and local community colleges will be key players in the process.“It

is part of our legacy program to see that something is to be

developed here. We want to do everything within our power to

help it gain momentum as we leave. Then, in fact, this is really

something that will take the place of us.”

International Resource to buy Clean Global Energy

Sydney - Thursday - April 30: (Australian Business News)

International Resource Holdings Ltd has entered a conditional

heads of agreement to acquire Clean Global Energy Pty Ltd

(CGE) for the issue of up to 300m IRH shares.

CGE is a private company with a vision of becoming a significant

provider of low-cost energy through converting vast sub-economic

coal deposits into a cheap, useful energy in the form of Syngas.

In exploiting coal deposits that are traditionally uneconomical to

mine, CGE will use its proven in-situ extraction method, Underground

Coal Gasification (UCG), to turn these resources into a

Syngas that is suitable for feedstock for power generation, the

production of chemicals and fertilisers, and for use in Gas to

Liquids technology that produces petrochemical products.

UCG is a process whereby coal is converted to gas in-situ and

brought to the surface for further use.

The UCG technology to be used by CGE has been developed

over the last 20 years by technical director Dr Michael Green

and proven most recently in a successful European UCG trial

conducted in Spain between 1992 and 1999. Dr Green has

continued to develop the process used in the trial.

CGE has four coal leases including EPC 1506, 1508 & 1539

located in the Clarence-Moreton Coal Basin in southeast

Queensland and EPC 1507 in the Biloela Coal Basin in central

Queensland. It has applied for three additional coal leases including

EPCA 1592 in the Bowen Basin, EPCA 1612 in the Clarence-

Moreton Basin and EPCA 1637 in the Galilee Basin.

If these additional leases are granted, the seven leases will cover

an area of about 1895 sq km.

METROCOAL’S SECOND DRILLING PROGRAM

COMPLETED ON QUEENSLAND UCG PROJECT

ABN Newswire, 8th May 2009

Metallica Limited has announced through its 84% holding in

MetroCoal Ltd, the successful completion of a second drilling

program on MetroCoal’s wholly owned underground coal

gasification (UCG) project in the Surat Basin, northwest of

Brisbane.

The program, focused within the Juandah project (MDLA 406),

has confirmed expectations of coal seam continuity and

thickness. Modelling and resource evaluation is ongoing with a

maiden resource estimate expected early in June, 2009.

MDLA 406 has no overlapping petroleum tenure issued under the

P&G Act and, in accordance with the recently announced State

policy regarding overlapping tenure, MetroCoal will be granted

exclusive tenure over the MDLA 406 area.

Juandah Project Highlights

16 drill holes (for a total of 4,893 m) within MDLA 406 completed

(See Table 1). 4 Core holes completed for 64.4m of core.

Coal intercepts confirm preliminary geological model.

Exploration expected to bring target resource to JORC Inferred

and Indicated status. Maiden resource statement expected early

in June 2009

Figure1 - MetroCoal Tenements and Setting

The 16 hole drill programme within MDLA 406 was completed

on 30 April 2009. This second drilling program follows the first

phase of drilling completed in October 2008. A geological model

constructed over large parts of EPC’s 1164, 1251 and 1164

was used to plan the program and will form the basis for future

resource estimation in the area. A 1x1 km grid was

established over MDLA 406 to provide a base for systematic exploration.

Twelve (12) pilot holes were rotary drilled, also referred

to as “open” holes, and four holes were `twinned’ to recover core

samples through the Macalister Seam section for coal quality

purposes. All holes were wireline logged for density and gamma.

This relatively widely spaced drilling is the first step towards

establishing a UCG resource. The Juandah MDLA 406 60km

tenement area near Wandoan has an exploration target

of between 125 Mt and 155 Mt within the initial area of drilling.

This target could be capable of supporting a coal gas-to-liquids

(GTL) plant producing 20,000 barrels of liquid fuels per day for

more than 20 years and is expected to increase as the drilling

program expands. Drilling targeted the Macalister Seams as the

main priority. Initial results confirm that the Macalister seams are

continuous across the MDLA area with working sections between

3.0mand 12.02m in thickness. The Kogan seam, stratigraphically

located above the Macalister seam, has also been intersected in

a number of holes and may provide an additional resource.

Jobs boom in SW Qld energy sector

Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:23am AEST

There are more jobs than people available in Queensland’s

booming energy sector in the Surat Basin in the state’s southern

inland. Coal seam gas, underground coal gasification projects

and open-cut coal mining are being developed across the region

from Toowoomba and Dalby out to Roma, Moonie and Chinchilla.

Dalby Regional Mayor Ray Brown says there is no reason for

anyone to be unemployed.”I think anybody who lives in this

area at the moment that doesn’t have a job really doesn’t want

a job because the papers are still full of vacancies,” he said.”I

know most of the coal seam gas producers are still looking for

staff here, some of them qualified staff but a lot of them are just

minimal qualifications. “It’s such a major growth region here at the

moment.”

East Coast Minerals arrives in the underground coal

gasification sector

Proactiveinvestors.com15.05.09

An option to acquire 51% of Energy Future has been exercised

by East Coast Minerals dealing shareholders of ECM into the fast

moving Underground Coal Gasification sector and a new value

adding platform for growth.

ECM will issue 1,000,000 East Coast shares to the principals

of Energy Future and the obligation for East Coast to fund $1.5

million of Energy Future’s costs.

Energy Future has applications for mineral exploration licences

over an off shore area of 6,000 km2 that stretches from Wollongong

to Newcastle. In 1981 the Coal Strategy Division of

the Department of Mineral Resources, Sydney estimated that

this area could contain up to 28 billion tonnes of coal down to a

depth of 600 metres assuming conventional mining techniques.

The company said, “this offshore opportunity has the potential to

supply more energy than all of the known Queensland coal seam

gas production combined.”

Access to required technology and UCG expertise to move to

production is crucial and here Energy Future has an MOU to

enter into a partnership with a world leader in gas to liquids

technology, Energy Technology Partners, which will licence

Energy Future with their Fischer Tropsch technology exclusively

for Australia and Raven Ridge Resources, a firm that has a large

number of successful UCG trials to its name around the world.

It is understood that both Energy Technology Partners and Raven

Ridge Resources will acquire as part of the transaction a significant

equity interest in Energy Future via a joint venture vehicle,

InSitu Energy.

Ultra Clean Fuel Potential for Northern Territory

Boarder Coal Seams

Brr.com.au 9th June 2009

Vast potential resources of coal described as a viable Exploration

Target in an area of the Simpson Desert straddling the South

Australian-Northern Territory border could yield a major source

of highly marketable “ultra-clean” middle distillate fuels through

modern underground coal gasification technologies, according to

an independent report by Mulready Consulting Services.

The report, prepared for Perth-based Central Petroleum Limited

estimates that a “best” case recoverable prospective resource

of 1.25 trillion barrels of liquid petroleum products produced by

“syngas” in a Gas to Liquids (GTL) process may be possible

from Central’s tenements, which cover a large portion of the

Pedirka Basin. Central said the findings added weight to its goal

to develop a large-scale GTL processing plant in Alice Springs,

to produce “ultra-clean” diesel, jet fuel or naphtha for a global

market driven by the trend to more energy-efficient vehicles.

“The recent emergence of sophisticated Underground Coal

Gasification (UCG) and GTL technologies in Australia is paving

the way for us to possibly unlock a huge unutilised potential

resource in Central Australia, and create a UCG/GTL operation of

major national significance,” Central Petroleum’s Managing Director,

Mr John Heugh, said.

Today’s report follows Central’s announcement earlier this year of

a one-trillion-tonne plus black coal Exploration Target at between

200 and 1,000 metres depth within the Early Permian Purni Formation

of the Pedirka Basin, including significant coal thicknesses

of well over 100 metres of cumulative coal seams. “The Mulready

report estimates that the “best” case (mid-case) syngas prospective

resource which may be available via UCG processes in

our Pedirka Basin petroleum acreage could produce about 1.25

trillion barrels of liquid gas in a GTL plant or plants, which would

be sufficient to fuel a 140,000 barrel-a-day gas-to-liquids plant for

about 27,000 years,” Mr Heugh said. “The UCG technology has

not been proven at large commercial scale in the west however

and the Exploration Target remains just that until more wells are

drilled.” “In this era of growing energy efficiency and the desire

for ever cleaner fuels, liquid hydrocarbons are commanding a

premium over gas and are much simpler to transport and easy to

sell not only for transport and electricity, but for the manufacture

of chemicals, solvents, fertilizers, and numerous other consumer

products. “We are looking at the findings of this report alongside

our pre-feasibility study into the potential for a large-scale GTL

plant, which we believe could attract commercial interest from

one of the larger global petroleum corporations,” Mr Heugh said.

“With global markets of clean liquid petroleum products growing

by the day, and the potential for our domestic market to also grow

rapidly if gas sales prices rise, we believe there is a huge market

for these products and certainly these factors may be enough to

justify construction of a GTL plant or plants if such resources are

eventually defined by further drilling.” “Our early drilling results

also suggest that the coals in the Pedirka Basin have reasonably

fit for purpose qualities and adequate macro and micro permeability,

which are fundamental parameters for UCG production,”

he said.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s untapped coal potential - Solution to

energy crisis?

Mark Muller with Roger Moody

THE Bangladesh Ministry of Power and Energy recently asserted

that the country must more than double delivered power within

the next five years (from around 4,000 MW to 9,000 MW per day).

With the installation and operation of four new coal-fired power

stations, it is claimed that the current daily gap between generation

and demand would be reduced to 1,500 MW.

According to Bangladesh’s National Energy Policy 2004 total coal

reserves are 2,527 million tonnes, contained in four fields: Barapukuria

with around 300 million tonnes; Phulbari with 400 million

tonnes; Jamalganj containing 1,000 million tons, and 450 million

tonnes at Khalaspir. Of these resources, 492 million tonnes are

estimated to be recoverable by mining.

The mining recovery estimate seems highly optimistic. Mark

Muller, as an experienced mining geophysicist, recently carried

out an independent technical review of Bangladesh’s coal

reserves. Based on existing surveys, he concluded that they

amount to between 3,200 and 4,700 million tonnes, using the

most optimistic figures found. Bangladesh’s only operating

coalmine, at Barapukuria, has so far delivered less than 3 million

tonnes. This is despite the 1992 projection that it would be able to

produce 60 million tonnes.

The Phulbari open-cast project is beset by heated debate over its

likely impacts on local communities, its dependence on a foreign

company, and by major doubts about its economic viability This

leaves the hardly-investigated Khalaspir field, and Jamalganj,

cited by the ministry as potentially the largest source of coal,

comprising more than a third of the country’s “cache.” However,

research now strongly suggests that the majority of the Jamalganj

resource is too deep to be mined: 96% of it is deeper than

700 m.

Research has identified two potential sources of coal-generated

energy that have four significant virtues. They are comparatively

cheap, can deliver power to nearby power stations, are relatively

clean in terms of pollution emissions; and they don’t necessitate

the disturbances of land and people that are associated with

conventional mining. Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and Underground

Coal Gasification (UCG) -- have already proved viable in several

countries, including the USA, Canada, China, Australia, South

Africa and Uzbekistan, with pilot projects now underway in the

UK, Spain and Belgium.

We don’t claim that CBM and UCG will solve all Bangladesh’s

energy problems; nor that they are “trouble free.” They can have

adverse impacts on land and water, interrupt agriculture, and be

unsightly. Yet the energy return from UCG can be as high as 75%

of that delivered directly by coal. Coal-seams not accessible by

mining are well within reach of both CBM and UCG, and can add

significantly to the recoverable resource. Their surface impact,

and that on hydrology, is significantly lower than with mining. Loss

of valuable agricultural land is greatly reduced. The need for solid

waste-rock and coal-ash management on the surface is entirely

removed. There is no subsidence risk at all for CBM, and little for

deep-seam UCG.

Apart from two studies -- one carried out by M.B. Imam, M.

Rahman, and S.H. Akhter in 2002 at Jamalganj; and the other at

Barapukuria by M.R. Islam and D. Hayashi in 2008 -- no concerted

investigation has yet been undertaken into the potential of

these two technologies for Bangladesh. Nor -- despite the Asian

Development Bank recently listing CBM as a “clean development”

mechanism -- are these methods currently being considered as

part of the country’s future “energy mix.”

Canada

Nordic Oil and Gas to apply to build underground coal

gasification project

The Canadian Press, 02.07.09

Nordic Oil & Gas Ltd and partner Western Warner Oils Ltd. said

they plan to apply to the province of Alberta for permits to build

an underground coal gasification project at a

Drumheller, Alta. property. The companies are making preparations

to submit an application for what would be the second

such UCG project in Canada, Nordic chairman and CEO Donald

Benson said in a statement. Coal gasification involves injecting

oxygen and saline water into the deeply buried coal to turn it into

synthesis gas. “The basic UCG process involves drilling two wells

into the coal - one for injection of the oxidants (water/air or water/

oxygen mixtures), and another some distance away to bring the

product gas to the surface,” Benson said. “The technique offers

an alternative to conventional coal mining methods.” In March,

the Alberta government announced it will provide $8.83 million to

Swan Hills Synfuels of Calgary towards a $30-million project near

Swan Hills in north-central Alberta. The Alberta government says

that will be the deepest underground coal gasification conducted

in the world - more than 1,000 metres below the surface.

It’s hoped the project will eventually lead to using the coal seams

to capture and store carbon dioxide, which is pumped into the

ground to help push oil out of aging reserves. The gas can be

used as fuel for clean power generation, further processed into

gas for home heating, or for other products like hydrogen, methanol

or transportation fuels. Underground coal gasification does

not use fresh water in its operation and is significantly different

than other processes, such as those used in oil sands development.

It’s used at depths where conventional coal mining is not

economic or currently possible. Copyright © 2009 The Canadian

Press. All rights reserved.

Clean coal? Go underground, Alberta

by Thomas Homer-Dixon and Julio Friedmann, Toronto Globe and

Mail. May 4, 2009

Alberta appears to be in a box - an energy box - that constrains

policy options in every direction. The province’s wealth is critically

tied to exploitation of its vast hydrocarbon resources. But faced

with declining reserves of conventional oil and natural gas, it has

been forced to turn increasingly to the tar sands, which pack a

huge carbon punch. And in a warming world, carbon is seen as a

menace. The strategy could severely crimp Alberta’s ability to sell

energy at home and abroad, even make it a pariah.

There is an alternative: coal.

What? Impossible, you say - measured in carbon emitted per unit

of usable energy generated, coal is as dirty as the tar sands, or

even dirtier.

Coal’s many problems are well known. They start with the damage

caused by mining. Mountaintops are sliced off in coal-rich

zones in the United States. And burning it creates pollution

from sulphur, ash and heavy metals. Although we can sequester

coal’s greenhouse-gas emissions underground with a technology

called carbon capture and storage, it sharply boosts costs.

But can we get coal’s energy without the carbon, ash and ruined

landscapes? Yes - if we don’t mine it. Engineers have long known

how to gasify coal above ground - turn it into syngas, a mixture

of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The same

is accomplished with underground coal gasification,

but without the mining or the gasifier machinery. Air or oxygen

is injected into wells that penetrate a deep coal seam, where

controlled partial combustion drives gasification. The gases are

brought to the surface, leaving behind many of the objectionable

components, including roughly half the coal’s sulphur, ash,

tar, mercury and arsenic. On the surface, this operation looks

like nothing more than a network of wellheads and pipes. But

the huge quantities of gas produced can either be burned to

generate electricity on site or piped off to make hydrogen, heat or

synthetic fuels.

UCG uses an inaccessible, dirty resource for largely clean energy.

It allows us to reach coal seams that are too deep for conventional

mining, effectively tripling or even quadrupling Canada’s

reserves. It’s also relatively cheap - under ideal conditions, UCG

syngas costs as little as $1 per million BTU. More realistically, the

technology can produce raw syngas deliverable to most markets

at less than $3 per million BTU. By contrast, Alberta and U.S.

natural gas traded between $7 and $11 per million BTU in 2008

and early 2009.

Because the price is low, it becomes cost-effective to couple

UCG with sequestration technology. The carbon content of UCG

syngas is similar to that of burned coal. If Canada’s deep seams

were developed without sequestration, their emissions could

exceed those of the tar sands. But UCG’s carbon footprint could

easily be less than that of a single natural gas plant if combined

with partial or complete sequestration programs. All commercial

projects proposed for the U.S. and Canada will capture and

sequester most or all of the carbon dioxide they produce. The

decarbonized syngas, in turn, could be used to produce power or

low-carbon fuels. Several countries have already deployed and

even commercialized UCG. Most such projects were built in the

Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s and in the U.S. after

the oil shocks of the 1970s and early 1980s. But the later flood

of low-cost natural gas undermined these projects’ economic

viability. Nonetheless, one plant in Uzbekistan has burned UCG

syngas continuously since 1959. Today, commercial projects are

ramping up in Australia and China.

www.homerdixon.com

China

China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants

By KEITH BRADSHER Published: May 10, 2009

China’s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised

worries around the world about the effect on climate change.

China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and

Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of gases

that are warming the planet.

But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has

emerged in the past two years as the world’s leading builder of

more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the

technology and driving down the cost.

While the United States is still debating whether to build a more

efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot

steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a

month.

While the United States is still debating whether to build a more

efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot

steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a

month.

Linc Energy ends talks with Yanzhou over sale

By Elizabeth Fry in Sydney June 24 2009 06:44

Linc Energy revealed on Wednesday it had ended talks over the

sale of its Queensland coal assets with China’s Yanzhou Coal

Mining after the two sides failed to agree a deal. Peter Bond, chief

executive of Linc, said negotiations over the assets were taking

far too long, undermining confidence in the sale process.

Linc has hired UBS to start a formal sale process of its Emerald,

Galilee and Pentland coal tenements in Queensland, which

analysts have estimated could be worth in excess of A$1bn

(US$800m).

Yanzhou is the latest in a long line of Chinese suitors to consider

buying Australian mining assets – not all of which have been successful.

However, Oz Minerals shareholders recently accepted an

offer from Minmetals to purchase the company’s mining assets

after the Chinese group raised its offer in a pre-emptive move to

head off opposition. Brian Flannery, managing director of Felix

Resources, said the company was in discussion with a number

of people about buying coal and a few of them had expressed

interest in taking an equity position.

Felix’s shares have more than doubled to A$13 on the back of

takeover speculation that Yanzhou would launch a A$3bn-plus

take-over bid – after a previous attempt to engage with the

company in December was unsuccessful. It is understood that

Yanzhou executives returned to Australia two weeks ago to reexamine

the miner’s assets. Xstrata Coal is also understood to

have looked at Felix. The London-listed miner said on Wednesday

it would not comment on speculation. Analysts said a tie-up with

Xstrata made sense for Felix because the groups’ operations

were adjacent and Felix had port allocation in place courtesy of

the new 30m tonnes per annum-coal port being built at Newcastle

by Xstrata and BHP Billiton.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

India

Cleaning Up Coal

SAUMIL SHARMA, Tehelka Magazine, Apr 25, 2009

Current energy consumption levels in India are heavily dependent

on conventional coal mining, making it the most important energy

source in India. About 70 percent of total electricity generation

in India uses coal. It is also the most carbon-intensive fuel. The

sector, therefore, continues to bear the blame for the maximum

emission of greenhouse gases and for polluting water under and

over the surface.

While it is hard to replace the need for coal, it is possible to

develop and promote alternative technologies to produce cleaner

fuel from the abundant coal deposits in the country. A good beginning

is already on the cards, with power sector reform initiating

the new paradigm of extracting fuel in ways other than conventional

coal mining.

A US firm specialising in technical expertise and management of

an alternative coal extraction process — Underground Gasification

of Coal (UCG) — has now proposed a pilot project in

Jharkhand. Negotiations between a set of companies under the

banner Clean Coal Resources (CCR) and the Jharkhand Government

are set to start soon after the Lok Sabha elections are

over. The two parties will be looking to work out the operational

details of the proposed project and a possible collaboration with

the public sector, Coal India Limited, or its subsidiaries.Graham

Chapman, CEO of Clean Coal Ltd, strategic alliance partner of

CCR, says: “We have identified our target countries by assessing

the prevalence of coal resources that are difficult to mine and

a requirement for power, which India meets.”After negotiating a

workable project and successful testing of the pilot phase, CCR

will move to commercial installation, generating enough syngas

for supporting gas-fired power plants generating 300- 400MW of

electricity. An estimated 46 percent of the coal deposits in India

are concentrated in the Damodar river basin in Jharkhand, making

it an attractive location for such an initiative.

The state also offers a commercially viable market for syngas

because it has many coal-fired power plants in the same belt. The

technique has been incorporated in the research and development

phase by Indian energy firms like Reliance Industries

Limited (RIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). India

has about 51.8 billion tons of estimated available coal reserves

for UCG, which make this alternative technology investment in

India commercially attractive in the long term.

As a part of the Indian alternative energy policy, Indo Australian

collaboration in UCG was announced in January 2009 and coal

blocks in India are being allotted for UCG pilot and commercial

projects to foreign and Indian companies.

Coal regulatory authority up and running in 100 days

Nandini Goswami / DNA, June 25, 2009

Kolkata: The coal ministry, in a fast track development, will institutionalise

a coal regulatory authority in 100 days’ time.

This seems to be a precursor to bigger changes, including private

participation in coal mining, expected in the industry in the next

few months.

Sriprakash Jaiswal, minister of state for coal, said, “This is one of

the top priority areas, along with some other issues for the coal

industry.” It is also part of the T S Shankar Committee recommendations

on coal sector reforms that the ministry is implementing

in phases.

Currently, coal mining in India is restricted to private players only

for captive use. If the sector is opened up in a major way, competition

among mining companies will increase and a regulator will

be needed. Jaiswal, who was in Kolkata on Wednesday, came

down heavily on project delays and said over 80% of the coal

blocks allotted by the ministry for end use by captive industries

have not started production.

“There are a number of coal blocks that have been allotted but

production has not yet begun. Out of estimated reserves of 40

billion tonnes given to 190 allottees, only 13 blocks are in production.

Almost 3-4 years have passed and mining has not started

in these areas. This cannot go on. There has to be a solution to

issues on land acquisition and compensation,” the minister said.

He said he will talk to the chief ministers and governors of states

and “decide on a fast track system”. “Environmental clearance is

also a crucial issue. We have decided that the central clearance

should come within six months for any project. Even the states

should fix up a time, take a clear stand and say a yes or no,”

Jaiswal said.

The minister and his officials will be visiting the entire coal belt

and the subsidiaries of Coal India over the next few days.

As part of its 100-day agenda, the ministry will bring in, for the

first time, competitive bidding for coal blocks and latest technology

for underground coal gasification. Jaiswal said the target for

coal production in the year will be decided after the rainy season

as output during this time is generally lower. The minister will

be reviewing all the subsidiaries of Coal India separately. While

admitting an increase in domestic coal prices was imminent, he

did not elaborate on the matter. Jaiswal ruled out any immediate

price increase and said, “My immediate concern is increasing

coal production and there is no question of price increase now. It

will be done when it will be required.”

Jaiswal said the Union government was not against disinvestment

of 5-10% but shares would be allotted to employees and people

who have given their land. The ministry, however, has not taken

any in-principle decision to go in for disinvestment.

Note: chapter 5 of the action report.

Publishing guidelines for Underground Coal gasification projects

Government has notified coal gasification (both surface and underground)

as end use under captive mining policy for allotment

of blocks to potential entrepreneurs. This being a new activity/

technology, Operational guidelines are required to be framed for

proper exploitation. Keeping this in view, it is proposed to bring

out appropriate guidelines for implementing underground coal

gasification projects in the country.

Ireland

New drill in exploration sector as firms go in search of

less risky opportunities

A lack of appropriate financing and major discounting has left the

Irish oil exploration sector gasping for air, writes John Reynolds,

Irish Independent Sunday June 21 2009

Budgets have been compounded by the gap that has opened up

between the projected costs of developing a field -- especially

offshore, where operating a rig can cost €500,000 a day -- and

the potential payoff, which isn’t as great now that the oil price has

fallen from its previous high. Any investor or potential new entrant

might therefore think twice before they sink a few holes -- and

perhaps tens of millions of euros -- anywhere near our shores,

particularly when they could be getting a more lucrative piece of

the action.

Opportunities exist during every downturn, however, and another

small exploration company believes it may have found one off the

coast of Dublin.

O’Leary managing director of VP Power will know later this year

whether he has been proved right.A team of geologists and

geophysicists recently spent six weeks conducting a seismic

exploration of the Kish basin, where he believes that underground

coal gasification (UCG) technology can be deployed to pump gas

from a huge billion-tonne coal seam. Raglan Capital is believed

to be raising money for the firm, and O’Leary claims the board’s

combined experience means it is well-versed in the highs and

lows of the exploration sector. “The way I see it, the oil price is

at around $70 at the moment, up from its low of $38 a barrel. So

in that respect it’s risen. It’s forecast to rise further by Christmas,

which I would see as helpful.”He’s also adamant that there is

something of an upside to what seems to be a wider downturn in

the sector. “We’re finding that the market for equipment such as

drilling rigs has collapsed. They’re readily available and the cost

of hiring one is considerably lower than it was.

“O’Leary anticipates capital expenditure of about €3m, and his

project, the later stages of which may involve Bord Gais, will only

be commercially feasible as long as the oil price stays above $35

per barrel. Although the technology that VP’s project would involve

is relatively ancient -- Dublin’s old Ringsend gasworks used

to heat up coal to produce ‘town gas’ when it was in operation

-- many countries with large coal deposits, such as China, South

Africa and India have recently invested billions in UCG plants,

recognising that the technology is cleaner than mining a coal

seam and then burning the coal.

USA

Linc Energy Signs Contract With GasTech Inc To Acquire

Powder River Basin Coal Tenements In The USA

Brisbane, May 14, 2009 (ABN Newswire)

Linc Energy has announced that it has signed a purchase agreement

to acquire a 100% interest in 92,059 acres of coal tenement

lease areas in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming USA from

GasTech Inc, a company based in Casper Wyoming.

The 92,059 acres being acquired have a coal deposit exploration

target range of 7 to 8 billion metric tonnes (non-JORC Code

standard) based on existing drilling data.

The Powder River Basin is the largest coal producing region in

the United States with current production from surface mines

representing over 45% of the total US production. The area being

acquired by Linc Energy contains multiple subituminous coal

seams ranging from 6 to 15 metres thick and occurring at depths

in excess of 150 metres, making them excellent targets for Underground

Coal Gasification (UCG) operations.

Linc has agreed to pay US$5 million for the purchase of the

GasTech coal tenements. This agreement follows the Letter of

Intent between Linc Energy and GasTech which was announced

on 3rd December 2008 and completes the first phase of the

proposed GasTech purchase, with the remaining area subject to

subject to a further transaction pending resolution of pre-emptive

rights held by a major petroleum company.The relevant coal

tenements are now subject to the satisfactory completion of Linc

Energy’s remaining due diligence enquiries, with settlement of

the transaction expected in approximately 60 days. Immediately

after settlement Linc will commence the permit and approval

process required in order to undertake a UCG pilot programme to

produce syngas, which it has committed to completing within 24

months of the acquisition.

Vietnam

Vietnam Min: Gazprom to Supply Coal Gasification

Technology

By Vu Trong Khanh, Dow Jones Newswires, 15.05.09. Copyright

(c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

HANOI - (Dow Jones) - Russia’s OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS)

signed an agreement to supply its underground coal-gasification

technology to Vietnam, Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources

and Environment said. The agreement was signed in Hanoi with

Vietnam’s Dong Duong Co., the ministry said in a statement.

Dong Duong will use the technology for gas production in the

Red River coal basin in northern part of the country, it added.

The ministry said it supports the idea of using Gazprom’s gasification

technology to extract gas from the Red River coal basin as

it is environmental friendly. Details about the agreement weren’t

provided.

Below are two articles that offer food for

thought

A Microbe That Could Keep Coal in the Ground

By Chris Morrison
June 29th, 2009 Bnet

Craig Venter already famous as the first person to completely

map his own DNA now claims to be working with British oil giant

BP on bacteria that can break down coal into methane, making

it cleaner and removing the need for mining. Using modified

bacteria, coal miners could presumably just “infect” a coal seam,

harvesting the resulting natural gas as it seeped upward through

the ground.

Venter announced his discovery of the coal-eating bacteria this

weekend, and the Times of London, along with other sources,

promptly reported it as something entirely new. Like most things

under the sun, it’s not. A startup called Luca Technologies,

for instance, was funded with $76 million last year for the same

idea, though the specific bacteria Luca uses are probably

different.

The bacterial approach itself is only part of a larger concept

called “underground coal gasification” (UGC). Companies and

governments around the world are looking at UGC as a way to

avoid sending miners underground, which often results in deaths.

UGC can’t come fast enough for places like Utah, for instance,

where a mining accident two years ago left nine dead and is today

leading to tougher, more expensive regulation on the industry.

The more typical method of UGC, is creating a controlled burn

along a coal seam, allowing a utility to harvest heat energy and

methane without ever extracting the coal. Projects of this sort are

further along than using microorganisms to break down the coal.

Neither method is well tested, so for the moment we’re still mining

and burning coal the usual way. The technology for doing that,

from boring holes and collecting the coal to transporting to coalburning

plants, has been perfected over decades, so it’s not likely

that UGC will be a competitor on price alone for some time. Later,

the balance may shift toward UGC. Using microbes is promising

because it’s possible that the bacteria in question are already

well-optimized by nature to convert coal to methane. It’s not clear

where all naturally-occurring natural gas comes from, but at least

some might be the remnants of coal eaten by microorganisms.

Assuming that process could be sped up a bit, coal miners could

have a cheap new extraction method on hand.The question is

how long it will take. My guess is that UGC will become important

sooner rather than later. Pressure from environmentalists to stop

building traditional coal-burning plants is growing, and new technologies

like carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) will only

raise prices for coal plants. Coal itself, on the other hand, won’t

change: Environmentalists can’t force its energy potential to go

away. All that’s needed is a new way to tap into that value.

China recruits algae to combat climate

change

Chinese firm behind ambitious plan to breed microalgae

in greenhouse with the potential to absorb

carbon emissions

Sunday, 28 June 2009

The garish gunk coursing through a greenhouse filled with transparent

pipes appears to belong on the set of a particularly slimy

episode of Star Trek. Multiplying rapidly as it flows through tubes,

stacked 14 high in four long rows, the organism thickens and

darkens like the bioweapon of a deranged scientist. But this is not

a science fiction horror story, it is one of humankind’s most ambitious

attempts to recruit algae in the fight against climate change.

Developed by a groundbreaking Chinese firm, ENN, the greenhouse

is a bioreactor that breeds microalgae, one of the fastest

growing organisms on the planet, with carbon captured from gasified

coal.

Algae may be the answer. The organism can absorb carbon far

more quickly than trees, foreign experts are enthusiastic. “Algae

biofuels and sequestration are being tried in a bunch of places,

but never with such an innovative energy mix,” said Deborah

Seligsohn, of the World Resources Institute, who visited ENN recently

with a group of international energy executives. “It is really

interesting and ambitious.”

Researchers at the algae greenhouse plan to scale up the trial

to a 100 hectare (247 acre) site over the next three years. If it

proves commercially feasible, coal plants around the world could

one day be flanked by carbon-cleaning algae greenhouses or

ponds.

“Algae’s promise is that its population can double every few

hours. It makes far more efficient use of sunlight than plants,” said

Zhu Zhenqi, a senior advisor on the project. “The biology has

been proven in the lab. The challenge now is an engineering

one: We need to increase production and reduce cost. If we can

solve this challenge, we can deal with carbon.” The algae must be

harvested every day. Extracting the oily components and removing

the water is expensive and energy intensive.

ENN is experimenting with different algae to find a hybrid that has

an ideal balance of oil content and growth speed. It is testing cultivation

techniques using varying temperatures and acidity levels.

Algae tests are also being carried out at the University of Ohio. In

Japan, algae is farmed at sea where it absorbs carbon from the

air. Elsewhere carbon is sprayed or bubbled into algae ponds. But

ENN is focusing on a direct approach.

“Here we can control it, like in a reactor,” said Gu Junjie, a senior

advisor. “Theoretically we can absorb 100% of carbon dioxide

emissions through a mix of microalgae and chemical fixing with

hydrogen.” The advanced algae, solar and coal gasification

technology is the latest stage in the rise of ENN, which has been

spectacular even by modern Chinese standards. The private

company now employs about 20,000 people, and owns a golf

course and hotel near its headquarters in Hebei province, where

a new research campus is under construction.

In the short term, ENN’s advanced underground coal gasification

technology is likely to prove more significant than its algae work.

This technique enables extraction of fuel from small, difficult-toaccess

coal seams, and could double the world’s current coal

reserves. It also avoids the release of the pollutants sulphur

dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

ENN executives have talked to the US department of energy

about joint research, a sign that the transfer of low-carbon technologies

is no longer a one-way street from west to east.

Recognising the continued role of the fossil fuel in China, the

European Commission proposed a plan this week to co-finance

a demonstration coal plant that aims to have near zero emissions

through the use of carbon capture and storage technology.

If members states and the European parliament agree on the

€50m plan, the facility would be operational by 2020.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009

Eating carbon - a type of rock with a voracious

appetite for carbon dioxide

From The Economist print edition

ONE way of helping to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into

the atmosphere is to pump the gas into underground caverns or

old oil fields. But there is also a rock that is happy to gobble it up,

and according to the latest research its appetite for the greenhouse

gas is not only massive but could also be increased by a

little human intervention.

The rock is peridotite, which is one of the main rocks in the upper

mantle, an area that provides a girth below the Earth’s crust. The

rock occurs some 20km or more down, although in areas where

plate tectonics have forced up some of the mantle, peridotite

reaches the surface.This happens in part of the Omani desert

Geologists have long known that when peridotite is exposed to

the air it can react quickly with carbon dioxide to form carbonates

like limestone or marble. Some people have looked at the idea

of grinding up peridotite and using it to soak up emissions from

power stations, but the process turns out to be expensive, partly

because of the costs of transporting all the rock. The transportation

would also create emissions. though an alternative: w2ould

be to pump the gas from places where it is produced and into

underground strata of peridotite.

Peridotite absorbs tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide

a year, far more than anyone had thought. By drilling and fracturing

the rock they believe they can start a process to increase the

absorption rate by 100,000 times or more. They estimate this

would allow the Omani outcrop, which extends down some 5km,

alone to absorb some 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year,

which is a substantial part of the annual 30 billion or so tonnes of

the gas that humans send into the atmosphere, mostly by burning

fossil fuels.

With such rocks situated in an area of the world where an

increasing amount of energy is produced and consumed, it potentially

provides a convenient carbon sink for the region’s energy

industry. Peridotite can also be found at the surface in other parts

of the world, including some Pacific islands, along the coasts of

Greece and Croatia, and in smaller deposits in America. Nor is

it the only rock with carbon-eating potential. The researchers are

now looking at volcanic basalt in a new project in Iceland.

CCS News

Global CCS Institute launch - L’Aquila, Italy 9th July

A very public and strong statement of support was delivered by

the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama,

at the international launch of the Global CCS Institute at the G8

meeting held in L’Aquila, Italy today.

The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, launched the Global

CCS Institute at a special briefing session during the G8 meeting,

hosted by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

With growing worldwide interest in CCS, international media

focused on the new Global CCS Institute and our role in accelerating

the commercial deployment of CCS and its valuable

contribution in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Details of the launch including the official media release and

promotional footage from the event are available on our website

at www.globasccsinstitute.com.

Carbon Capture Center coming to Wilsonville by Cassandra

Mickens (Contact)
Shelby County Reporter

May 27, 2009

WILSONVILLE —Southern Co., the parent company of Alabama

Power, announced Wednesday it will manage and operate the

U.S. Department of Energy’s new National Carbon Capture

Center at the Power Systems Development Facility in Wilsonville.

The center, a partnership between DOE and leading energy companies,

will focus on researching and developing technologies

to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-based electricity

generation, said Randall Rush, Southern Co. general manager of

gasification technology.

“Over half of the electricity in America and in the world is produced

by coal, and it’s extremely important for we as a world to

find more cost effective ways to control carbon emissions,” Rush

said at an afternoon press conference. “Here we will evaluate

chemical and engineering processes to capture carbon dioxide

when you take coal and turn it into electricity.”

The center will work with scientists and technology developers

from government, industry and universities to create the next

generation of enhanced carbon capture technologies. Existing

facilities at the PSDF will be modified to conduct the pre-combustion

carbon dioxide component of the project. New facilities to

conduct post-combustion testing will be at the nearby Alabama

Power Gaston Plant, also in Wilsonville. The five-year project is

expected to create or sustain nearly 170 jobs, according to a

DOE news release.

By conducting analyses in a power plant setting, the center will

provide meaningful performance data under real operating conditions

to enable scale-up of the technologies, said David Ratcliffe,

Southern Co. president and CEO. “This center will serve as a

crucial bridge that takes emerging carbon capture technology

from the laboratory to commercial demonstration,” Ratcliffe said.

“The National Carbon Capture Center, along with other research

initiatives under way across the country, will play a major role in

ensuring that the United States can continue to utilize coal resources

in a cleaner, economical way.” Southern Co. also recently

announced plans to build a demonstration facility to capture

carbon dioxide emissions from Alabama Power’s Plant Barry near

Mobile. Beginning in 2011, between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of

carbon dioxide per year would be transported by a pipeline from

the plant and stored underground at a site about 10 miles from

the plant. The center in Wilsonville, expected to be fully operational

by 2010, is the first of its kind in the world, Rush said.

Vattenfall applies for permission to store CO2 underground

in North Jutland29 June 2009:

Vattenfall has applied to the Danish Energy Agency today for

permission to establish a CO2 store underground in Denmark.

The application relates to the Vedsted structure in Jammerbugt

Municipality – an area that has previously been investigated thoroughly

in connection with oil exploration. Preliminary geological

surveys in 2008 indicated that the structure is suitable for storing

CO2 at a depth of 1000-2000 metres.

“We want to have a decision from the authorities about whether

a permit to store CO2 can be obtained and – if so – under what

conditions,” says Erland Christensen, Head of Vattenfall, Nordic

Heat. Vattenfall plans to conduct a number of new seismic

surveys of the area in 2010. The surveys had been scheduled

for 2009, but were postponed so as to allow for extended local

dialogue. Erland Christensen emphasises that safety is crucial,

this will include a comprehensive environmental impact assessment

(EIA), which will involve a public consultation, among other

things. Furthermore, the final permit presupposes that the case

has been submitted to the Energy Policy Committee of the Danish

Parliament. “The target in North Jutland is a climate-positive

solution that, on the whole, will ‘tap’ half a million tonnes of CO2

from the atmosphere every year. We will achieve this by combining

CO2 storage with using climate-neutral biomass as fuel,” says

Erland Christensen. The solution is planned to be put into operation

by the end of 2014.

Breaking the Climate Deadlock

The ‘Breaking the Climate Deadlock’ initiative, co-sponsored by

former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and The Climate Group

policy think-tank, released a new report focusing on ‘Technologies

for a Low Carbon Future’. The report has been released to

coincide with the start of the meeting of G8 leaders in Italy and

to encourage the development of technology roadmaps ahead of

this year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. WCI

Chief Executive Milton Catelin has played an important role on

the advisory group to the initiative.

The report examines the mitigation potential of a range of technologies

in power, transport, buildings and industry, and the contributions

they can make by 2020 and 2050. The 17 technologies

covered by the report include CCS for fossil fuels and industry,

nuclear, biofuels, energy efficiency measures and the full suite of

renewable sources.

The full report, which includes an annex detailing current status

and abatement potential for each technology, can be downloaded

from http://www.theclimategroup.org/news_and_events/breaking_

the_climate_deadlock_technology_report/.

U.S. gives up to $408 million to “clean coal” projects

Reuters, July 1 2009

The U.S. Energy Department has said it will provide up to $408

million in funding for two projects aimed at developing advanced

clean coal technologies. The department said it will provide up to

$308 million to Hydrogen Energy International LLC in California

and up to $100 million to Basin Electric Power Cooperative in

North Dakota as part of the department’s Clean Coal Power Initiative.

This is the third round of funding from the program, which

was created to increase investment in low-emission coal technology

through a cost-sharing partnership between the federal

government and private industry. The program was allocated an

additional $800 billion under the U.S. economic stimulus package

passed this year.

EU mulls €7 billion subsidy for carbon capture

Euroactive, 7th July 09

The European Commission has estimated that up to €7 billion

could be made available to fund CCS technology from the EU’s

emissions trading scheme (EU ETS). Meanwhile, renewables

projects would get around €5 billion. The assessment is based

on projects that have been presented to the Commission so far.

The new entrants reserve is intended to pay for the incremental

investments that utilities make in CO2 capture facilities, or for setting

up renewable energy projects that are not yet commercially

viable. As the ETS puts a price on CO2, the free allowances thus

become direct subsidies to industries, provided that they share

their knowledge with new businesses to get pioneering technologies

off the ground on a commercial scale.

Alberta to back three carbon capture projects

Reuters, Tue Jun 30, 2009

The Alberta Government has said it will support three CCS

projects from a C$2 billion ($1.7 billion) fund set aside last year

as the province looks to cut emissions from coal-fired power

plants and oil sands projects. The province said it expects to

provide up to C$100 million this year for design and engineering

work on the three proposals, selected after a year-long competition,

and expects to have letters of intent signed with the backers

next month. The three projects being backed by Alberta include

carbon capture and storage at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Scotford

oil sands upgrader; a carbon-capture facility at a power plant

owned by Epcor, Edmonton, Alberta’s municipally owned utility

and backed by Enbridge Inc; and a project to take carbon dioxide

from an Agrium Inc fertilizer plant as well as a planned upgrader

and ship it by pipeline to oilfields, where it will be used to boost

output.

The province said in a release it expects the three projects to

achieve annual carbon dioxide reductions by 2015 equivalent to

taking about a million vehicles off the road.

Australia announces May Budget

Earlier this week the Australian Government announced its May

2009 budget. As part of the budget, details of a new Clean Energy

Initiative (CEI) were outlined. The CEI has been developed to

support the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), which

will seek to implement a cap-and-trade system in Australia.

The CEI is made up of three components; a CCS Flagships

Programme, Solar Flagships Programme, and plans for a new

“Renewables Australia” body. The CCS Flagships Programme will

see the government provide A$2.425 billion worth of funding over

9 years, with a target of creating 1000MW of low emission fossil

fuel generation from 2 to 4 projects demonstrating the full range

of capture and storage technologies.

The Australian CCS flagship projects will contribute to the global

portfolio of projects supported by the Global Carbon Capture

and Storage Institute (GCCSI). It is hoped that the development

of these flagship projects will aid the transition to a low-carbon

economy not only in Australia but worldwide, through the sharing

of economic and technical learning.

The projects deemed eligible for funding will be determined in

early 2010 and it is hoped that construction will begin in 2012

with commissioning from 2015. Projects are expected to be on

an industrial scale and to make a significant contribution to the

1000MW target. Coal gasification, post-combustion capture and

oxyfuel will all be considered as suitable capture technologies.

Further details of the legislation connected to the CCS Flagships

Programme are expected to be released in the coming months.

Cleaner Coal in China

WCI, April 2008

The International Energy Agency has just released a new report

entitled ‘Cleaner Coal in China’. The report is designed to provide

policy advice in a number of key areas of China’s coal sector in

order to help improve resource recovery, mine safety, environmental

performance and economic efficiency. The report has

been simultaneously released in English and Chinese.

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka noted that China’s coal

currently provides the world’s economy with more energy than

Middle Eastern oil, and the report serves as a timely reminder

that it is in everyone’s interests to deal with the environmental

impacts of coal use on this kind of scale through the development

and deployment of clean coal technologies. Full details of the

report can be found at http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/b.aspx.

Events

2009

September

COAL-GEN Europe

Silesia, Katowice, Poland, 1st – 3rd September

UCGP Members receive a 20% discount on registration fees

http://cge09.events.pennnet.com/fl/index.cfm

26th Annual Pittsburgh Coal Conference

Westin Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

20th – 23rd September

UCGP will be running a one day UCG tutorial

on the 20th September.

Rohan Courtney and Julie Lauder presenting

http://www.engr.pitt.edu/pcc/ugctutorial.html

October

Global UCG Summit

Meridian Piccadilly, London, 5th and 6th October 2009

Post-event Workshops: 7th October 2009

Julie Lauder will present and run a UCGP Workshop

UCGP Members receive a 10% discount on registration fees

http://www.iqpc.com/Event.aspx?id=194306

UCGP Visit to Australia

26th October- 6th November

Julie Lauder will be visiting the Brisbane area for two weeks

to meet with interested parties and members to begin work on

the forthcoming UCG Australia Conference 2010 and to attract

new UCGP members.. Please contact Julie should you wish to

arrange a meeting or have suggestions or contacts that you feel

would benefit either the partnership and/or the event.

julie.lauder@ucgp.com

IEA, International Conference on Coal Science &

Technology (ICCS&T)

Cape Town, South Africa 26th 29th Oct 09,

http://www.iccst.info/live/index.php

2010

March

5th UCGP International Conference & Workshop

London 23rd - 24th March 2010

October/November

1st UCGP International Conference, Brisbane, Australia

October/November 2010.

ucgp News

UCG Chapters and Membership Expansion

We continue to work towards establishing UCG chapters in key global locations, namely, USA, South Africa, Australia and China.

We have been offered considerable support from members in these regions and will update you on any significant developments.

However, we are requesting that members please pass on any contacts they may know or have worked with who may benefit from joining

the Partnership. We are especially keen to engage with those that we see as integral to the supply chain. Please pass on any details and

contacts to Julie Lauder – julie.lauder@ucgp.com

UCGP to change legal status to a charity

As we reported in the last Newsletter, the UCG Partnership with the support of the Advisory Council has been looking at changing its

status to a UK Registered Charity. We are delighted to have the assistance and help of the legal firm Nabarro LLP who have joined us a

Founding Member and kindly agreed to undertake this work on a pro bono basis. A new company has been formed, limited by guarantee

and without shares, named UCG Association. So far most of the legal documentation has been completed and all the necessary forms

signed by the new Trustees:

Rohan Courtney OBE, Clean Coal Ltd (Chairman)

Kenneth Fergusson, UCG Partnership

Dr Michael Green, UCG Engineering

Don Kinnersley, Deloitte

Dr Cliff Mallett, Carbon Energy

Prof. Peter Styles, Keele University

UCGP Research Group

Due to growing work commitments, Dr Michael Green will be temporarily stepping down as Chair of the Research Group.

Prof Peter Styles, who has been working closely with other research members on several EU funding initiatives for UCG will take over as

Acting Chair of the group. Email contact: Prof. Styles: p.styles@keele.ac.uk

UCG Reserves Initiative

Those of you involved with raising commercial interest and attracting investment will no doubt be familiar with the need to supply would be

investors with information as to how much Syngas can be produced from coal deposits using UCG and what valuation can and should be

placed on the coal resources. In most countries there exists a valuation framework for coal deposits that enable valuations of a resource,

however, these vary dependent on location, JORC in Australia, is a good example.UCGP is currently working with a selected group of

members, all of whom have experience in this area, to research a method and criteria to put in place a reliable standard method of valuation

on any potential UCG resource. If you have any information, research or wish to share comment or knowledge please let us know as

we are keen to obtain any information that may assist. The findings will be made available to members and there will of course be scope

for discussions and further input. This is a new initiative, again developed by levels of enquiry.

Chairman of the working group: Ray Pilcher email: pilcher@ravenridge.com

UCGP Notice Board on Website

The website continues to evolve and we have now added a UCGP Notice board. This is due to the increasing number of enquiries and

questions from members that come into the centre. The notice board will allow you to contact all members with questions, information,

share research or offer advice - please do make use of this, If you wish to keep your enquiry confidential it can be placed on the notice

board by the centre as a general enquiry, but do please use this as a valuable tool to keep in touch with each other.

UCG Freelance Writers

We have been contacted by Suzanne McElligott, from Carbon Energy Research Res. (CERR) who previously worked with Gasification

News and has in the past attended and reviewed many of our events, so is very familiar with UCG. They are offering a service that may be

of interest to members.The contract energy writers at Carbon Energy Research Res. (CERR) can help you get your message across.

Our contract writers/researchers, who have more than 75 years of combined energy experience, are some of the very few who have

written extensively about Underground Coal Gasification. Whether it is informational packets regarding the process, the state of the

industry or your project, CERR is the right team to help you get the word out. Please contact Suzanne McElligott at 1-(703) 865-4099

or send us an email at: info@CarbonEnergyResearch.com. You can always visit our website at: CarbonEnergyResearch.com for

more information about us. If you have written an article, paper, presented or come across an article of interest please do share it.

UCGP Event Reports

Coal Research Forum Meeting

22nd April, Houldsworth Building, Leeds University

Kenneth Fergusson reports meeting had about 35 attendees, several of whom were Leeds students, so our target audience was perhaps 25

strong. My UCGP presentation was well received and prompted several pertinent questions. Grant Budge, who presented on progress of the UK

Hatfield project reported that they have now selected GE gas turbines for Hatfield, because only GE would offer a design to burn natural gas as

a CCGT at start-up and later switch to IGCC gas from their Shell gasifiers. I noted this as a major point for future UCG presentations in UK,

and elsewhere because, while we have always said that a coal-fed IGCC could later switch to very similar UCG gas, the Hatfield contract

shows that it is possible to convert a CCGT to burn UCG gas. While it may need a turbine change on an existing plant, it would appear

that a new plant could be built to facilitate such a switch. So we, UCGP, should have no reservations at more gas-fired CCGT’s being built

in the next few years, if we make the representations that they could later be switched to UCG, which can be easily CO2-stripped, and

would thus give them cheap CCS, and a domestic, lower-cost fuel.

3rd South Africa-EU Working Group on Coal Meeting

5th – 6th May 2009, Pretoria, South Africa

Julie Lauder and Rohan Courtney both presented papers to this meeting attended by senior representatives of the European Commission,

Department of Minerals and Energy, South Africa and energy businesses from both South Africa and the EU. UCGP is a member

of the EC Coal Working party and have previously attended Bilaterals for EU- China, EU-India and EU-South Africa. The two day agenda

covered South African energy plans and the current position on Petroleum, Coal, Nuclear, Renewable Energy, Climate Change and

energy efficiency initiatives. UCG continues to climb up the agenda at these meetings and in addition to our own presentations. Eskom

gave an update on their current UCG project, which is going to plan. EU representatives included visiting senior personnel from AFD,

Areva, Alstom Power, Babcock, BP, Schlumberger, Shell, Siemens, Total, Tucottbus and the Zero-Emission Platform. South African representatives

included Anglo Coal, Eskom, Exxaro, Saneri and Sasol. Future bi-laterial meetings are planned and we continue to forge firm

relationships with leading SA energy organisations and government departments.

Whilst in South Africa we visited the Sasol visitor site in Sasolburg, accompanied by the Head of Delegation, Dr. Derek Taylor. 20 senior

members of the Sasol team attended a four hour workshop on UCG. Dr Taylor presented an EU overview of carbon emissions limits and

controls and how the EU hope to work with SA to help achieve the global reductions required by 2015.

We also took the opportunity to meet up with UCGP members based in the region, MegChem, who had just returned from a visit to Chinchilla,

Analytika Holdings, who are busy in Botswana promoting UCG and Drillcom, who are actively promoting the partnership and trying

to engage with others to join us and further UCG in South Africa.

SMi Gasification Conference

London 17th -18th June – UCG Half Day Workshop 16th June.

The half Day workshop, whilst excellent in content had a very disappointing number of attendees. The programme had been structured to

give an overview of UCG - technology, history, applications, Geology, Drilling. The competent team led by Julie Lauder included, Shaun

Lavis, Clean Coal, Peter Sallans, Unconventional Energy and Bob Godbolt, Scientific Drilling. (All presentations will be available to

members on the UCGP website) UCGP would like to extend their sincere thanks to all the presenters for their support, technical expertise

and enthusiasm. This two day conference had a wide range of gasification topics and UCG was well represented with presentations from

Alan Borrowman and Steve Walters - BCG Energy, this was an overview of various legislative and planning requirements associated with

implementing a UCG project, plus the information and requirements to engage interest and investment. Cliff Mallett - Carbon Energy presented

on the progress, expansion and successful trials at Bloodwood Creek and Len Walker - Cougar Energy on Kingaroy and Cougars

expansion plans.

Julie Lauder presented on the issues concerning the Public Perceptions of UCG and Clean Coal. This was a timely topic as most of the

previous presenters had expressed how public opposition was hindering both progress and investment in projects this also included new

public concerns where many are not allowing any seismic surveys in their areas, in case carbon could be stored under their homes! Judith

Shapiro, from the CCSA, presented on the issues of informing the public of CCS, which also faces opposition. A lively panel discussion on

public perceptions then followed. Though no finite conclusion was reached it was certainly identified that there needs to be a concerted

move to engage and inform the public on Clean Coal and CCS. Another presentation of note was research into UCG/CCS given by

Univ.-Prof Dr. Dr. h. c. Rafig Azzam, Head of Department, Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, RWTH Aachen University. They have a

dedicated team who are researching this topic - well worth a look. http://www.co2sinus.org/index_en.html. Overall the conference offered

an opportunity to engage with many, previously unfamiliar with UCG, who realized felt they had products, services and skills which could

be used in the UCG industry of the future. Other presenters included: RWE, Nuon, Mann, Jacobs, Prozap,

Progressive Energy.

Some of the benefits of Membership

· A network of contacts of individuals, companies and public organizations involved in UCG

· Regular newsletter and updates on new and existing UCG projects around the world

· Employment Register and Job opportunities in UCG

· Investment Opportunities described on the website

· Access to a complete and unique online archive information on all UCG from early days

· Focal point for all information relevant to UCG for members through email, website and seminars, and access to an

inter-active website.

· Public and independent information service on UCG and representation at the highest level

· Early advice and “clearing house” for UCG on nancial and technical aspects of UCG projects,

through contacts with energy companies, banking and project nance specialists

· Feasibility studies, collaborative development and other study programmes on UCG

· Tailored support from UCG Partnership for seminars, training courses, work shops (at additional cost)

· Listings of member companies through consultancy les and website exposure

Membership Fees:

Free Conference Places Annual Membership Fee

Founder Members - Unlimited negotiable

Academic Members - Two places £1,000 + VAT

General Members (100 + employees) - Six places £5,000 + VAT

(50 – 100 employees) - Four places £3,000 + VAT

(20 – 50 employees) - Three places £2,000 + VAT

(10 - 20 employees) - Two places £1,500 + VAT

(Individual or less than 10 employees) - One place £750 + VAT

Reciprocal - One place nil

Contact Us:

Elizabeth House,

Duke Street,

Woking,

Surrey

GU21 5AS

Tel: 44 870 803 0665

Fax: 44 870 803 2065

From 1st August, new contact numbers

Phone: +44 (0)1252 661978

Fax: +44 (0)1483 851170

Email :info@ucgp.com

www.ucgp.com

2010-01-31T15:59:00.001-08:00

ucgpUPDATE

Newsletter for Members of UCG Partnership

Issue 12, April 2009

Network House, Bradfield Close, Woking,

Surrey GU22 7RE United Kingdom

Tel: 44 870 803 0665

Fax: 44 870 803 2065

New UCG Training Course for 2009

14th – 20th September 2009

UCGP Training Course No 1/09 on UCG (Basic)

Imperial College London

We are delighted to announce a new Training Course in conjunction with the

prestigious Imperial College London.

The course will be very similar in format and content to the successful 2008 training course with

Imperial College, though as yet full programme course, accommodation options and cost have not

been completely finalised. We will inform you of these as soon as possible. The course will outline

basic UCG methodology and will be presented by a team of experts from academia and industry.

If you are interested in attending or would like more information as it becomes available please contact

denise.purssey@ucgp.com or julie.lauder@ucgp.com

UCGP 2010 International Conferences

Our last event was yet again extremely well attended and very successful (see full report in members

section). The networking was, as always, a major attraction and virtually all those present voiced their

feelings as to the need for more than one UCGP international event each year. The Advisory Council

members also feel that UCGP needs to move the conference to other locations, and with so much

happening globally, two events seem to be required. With that in mind, we are delighted to announce

our preliminary conference plans for 2010.

5th International Conference on Underground Coal Gasification,

London, 22nd – 23rd March 2010

and

UCGP International Conference, Australia

Brisbane October/November 2010

Such was the success of the last event that our main sponsor, Deloitte has already given

their support for the next annual UCGP Conference 2010 in London. So the definitive conference on

Underground Coal Gasification will once again be held at the prestigious London location, Deloitte

Auditorium, New Street Square.

UCGP International Conference on Underground Coal Gasification and

Bloodwood Creek site visit, Australia 2010.

We will be holding a second event in Brisbane in October/November 2010, date to be finalised. This

will be our first major event outside the UK. The event will include presentations and updates from

many of our Australian members as well as global updates. We will also continue the related work

from the recent Clean Coal Networking mission. An exciting key feature of the Australian event will be

a site visit to the Carbon Energy Bloodwood Creek UCG facility, a must for all in UCG and associated

technologies.

We are already speaking with those who have expressed an interest in taking part in both UCGP

events but we welcome suggestions and input from members and affiliates, especially if you have

contacts who may be interested in the opportunity to provide sponsorship. If we can attract sufficient

sponsorship, both events will be free to UCGP members. A token charge may be made for networking

events. We will keep you all updated on the progress of both events.

More details will follow as soon as they become available.

It is advisable to book immediately

Numbers are limited and places are filling quickly

Please advise if you would like to take up the showcase

opportunity – free to all members

UCGP 4th International Conference success

We would like to thank all members and participants who

helped make the last conference such as success. Huge

thanks to our two main sponsors Deloitte and RBS for their

hospitality and superb facilities. We have already booked the

date for next year’s conference.

Please see conference section for more details and full

conference review in the Members News section.

Conferences and Meetings.

There has been no let up in the Partnership’s activities over

the past couple of months. HUGE meetings in Europe,

conferences in London, workshops in Delhi, presentations in

Poland and the extensive Clean Coal Networking mission to

Australia are just some of our recent activities.

Energy is still a critical priority topic for all nations and one of

the aims of the Partnership is to make sure that in 2009 we

spread awareness of UCG more than ever before. Please

read the reports of these events from the

attending officers.

Forthcoming Events

We continue to receive increasing numbers of invitations to

present at the conferences of others and give presentations

to trade associations and government bodies. We are more

than happy to do this as it spreads the word on UCG.

This year we have again been invited to organise a UCG

Workshop at the 26th Annual Pittsburgh Coal Conference. It

will take place on Monday 21st September just ahead of the

full conference programme. We are also running a UCG

Workshop at the SMi Gasification conference in London in

June. Please check the Conference pages for

details of forthcoming meetings and conferences

pertinent to UCG.

Speakers on UCG required

The UCG Partnership is increasingly being asked to provide

speakers to make presentations on UCG at conferences,

interest groups and trade associations.

We are currently seeking potential speakers to communicate

our message on every continent and in every language, as

interest in UCG is high on the agenda around the world. We

are seeking responses from members who feel they may be

able to present, or have already done so in the past. UCGP

will pick up your out-of-pocket expenses and you can promote

your organisation at the same time.

See UCGP News section for further details

New Members

UCGP warmly welcomes the following new members:

Nabarro LLP

Unconventional Energy Solutions, Australia

Drillcon Ltd, South Africa

Indochina Limited, Han Oi, Vietnam

Jade Commodities Ltd,

Clean Carbon Consulting

General Capital Group, Munich, Germany

For the complete list of articles please go to the Members’ area at: www.ucgp.com

News from around the world -

selection of articles furthering the use of UCG

Production of high value oxygen injected syngas suitable for

the production of low emission electricity, chemicals and

liquid fuels;Conversion of unmineable coal in-situ to gas

energy at an average rate of 20PJ per million tonnes in the

Surat basin. Validation of Carbon Energy's proprietary

design and economic models which can be applied to any

suitable coal seam anywhere in the world; and consistently

achieving, and exceeding, target energy content and flow

rates.Carbon Energy's Managing Director Andrew Dash said

the Company will be completing its analysis of the data

obtained during the trial phase prior to providing the results

to its two main commercial partners; Incitec Pivot and

LyondellBasell, for their assessment. It is anticipated that

once approved, further pre-feasibility studies will then be

undertaken to confirm syngas's suitability for power

generation, ammonia manufacture and methanol production.

In the meantime, the UCG syngas reactor at Bloodwood

Creek will continue to operate on air injection, with ongoing

monitoring and verification of results, while plans for

commercialization are initiated.

Linc Energy 3rd Underground Coal

Gasification (UCG) generator trial at

Chinchilla

(ABN Newswire), Mar 10, 2009

Linc Energy’s 3rd Underground Coal Gasification (UCG)

generator trial at Chinchilla began in August 2008 and has

now been operating continuously for almost seven months,

making it in its own right one of the longest-running western

world UCG trials to date.The operation is air-blown and

produces gas at a pressure of approximately 10

atmospheres. No steam or water is currently required to be

injected into the process although this can be accommodated

if required. The main objective of this trial was to

demonstrate the supply of synthesis gas of sufficient quality

and quantity for utilisation in the Gas to Liquids (GTL)

demonstration plant over a lengthy period. (A separate

update on GTL operations will be provided shortly.)During its

almost seven months of operation, the generator has

operated very stably, producing gas of consistent quantity

and quality.

Gas has been produced with a typical composition (on a

nitrogen-free basis) of H2 32%; CO 17%; and CH4 18%.

The H2/CO ratio of 1.81 is ideal for Linc Energy's GTL

process. Since commencing operation of the 3rd UCG

generator, Linc Energy has gasified approximately 2000

tonnes of coal, producing over 5 million Nm3 of synthesis

gas.The information that has been gathered from Generator

3 to date has been used to gain further understanding of the

UCG process in order to validate the technology models

being developed by Linc Energy and to enable the Company

to predict the performance of commercial scale UCG

generators whilst also enabling the operating conditions of

the generator to be effectively controlled.

Australia

MetroCoal secure rights in Surat Basin

for UCG. 29 January 2009

Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) proponent MetroCoal

has announced it had secured exclusive exploration rights

over a large tenement in the Surat Basin.

The move is a significant boost to the emerging UCG sector,

which according to the company, is estimated to be worth

billions of dollars to the Queensland economy because it

avoids the still-to-be-resolved issue of overlapping exploration

rights on tenements by UCG and Coal Seam Gas (CSG)

proponents.

MetroCoal CEO Mike O’Brien said the company has secured

the exclusive rights over a 60 km2 portion of one of its

extensive coal tenements in the Surat Basin MetroCoal now

has a Mineral Development Licence application over the

area and moved quickly to raise the exploration funds

required to begin a drilling program in the tenement in the

Wandoan area,” O’Brien said.Wandoan will be in the vicinity

of a CSG operation, providing the opportunity to prove that

both UCG and CSG can co-exist within proximity of each

other. “UCG requires considerably less land than the level

sought by the CSG operators and our footprint will have

minimal land impact,” he said.“It is estimated UCG can

produce billions in royalties for Queensland alone over the

next 20 plus years and could supply cleaner diesel, fertilizers

and transport fuels for many decades.“Australia is expected

to require 600,000 barrels of oil per day by 2014-15.

Queensland will have the opportunity to meet this domestic

demand right in its own backyard. These fuels will be of

immense strategic importance to Australia, reducing our

reliance on imported fuels and saving many billions of dollars

in foreign exchange and it should be considered a must for

Governments to develop a coal-derived clean fuel industry to

meet domestic demands

Carbon Energy successfully

completes 100 day UCG trial at its

Bloodwood Creek.

ABN Newswire, Sydney, Feb 3, 2009

Carbon Energy Limited announced today that it has

completed the 100 day Underground Coal Gasification

(UCG) trial at its Bloodwood Creek site, near Dalby in South

East Queensland. Carbon Energy has clearly demonstrated

that its UCG module can deliver commercial scale syngas

production of 1 peta joule (PJ) per annum of syngas, with the

following key outcomes: Sustained production of air injected

syngas suitable for low cost generation of power (achieved in

November 2008);

The significance to Cougar of the Government’s granting of

MDL 385 includes:-

- It allows Cougar to advance the planning and execution of

its proposed nominal 400MW power station project,

commencing with the Pilot Burn Stage later this year.

- It also permits the Company to complete the agreed

purchase from Cockatoo Coal Ltd of its remaining interest in

the UCG Designated Area at Kingaroy, which includes

MDL385.

MDL 385 is not subject to any overlying Petroleum Act

tenure, and under the Government’s recently announced

policy, will be protected for development of the Kingaroy

UCG project. “Given recent speculation on the future

prospects for UCG in the State, and the period of time

elapsing since submission of the MDL application, Cougar

views this announcement as an expression of confidence in

the Company’s capability to execute its development plan,”

Cougar’s Managing Director, Dr Len Walker, said today.

“Cougar’s past drilling programs have confirmed a JORC

compliant resource of 73 million tonnes of coal suitable for

the UCG process, which is sufficient to fuel a 400MW

combined cycle power plant for at least 30 years,” Dr Walker

said.

“We look forward to progressing all facets of this project

under the newly-granted Mineral Development Licence and

advise today that we have also completed the purchase of a

7.9 ha property within MDL 385, which provides a long-term

site office, together with core and equipment storage sheds.

“Site drilling and in-situ testing work, and the manufacture of

gas processing plant continues, with initial delivery of plant

items to the site anticipated next month.”

Carbon Energy Executes Heads of

Agreement to Acquire WA Coal

Resource and Secure Foundation Gas

Sale Agreement

Carbon Energy Limited has executed a Heads of Agreement

with Eneabba Gas Limited (ENB) and its fully-owned

subsidiary, Eneabba Mining Pty Ltd (EMPL) to acquire

EMPL’s granted coal tenements of over 1,000 km2 and

develop an Underground Coal Gasification syngas supply for

the planned ENB owned Centauri 1 Power Station near

Dongara in Western Australia.

When completed, the Heads of Agreement will result in:

1. Carbon Energy acquiring a substantial coal exploration

area in Western Australia including at least 300Mt JORC

inferred resource;

2. A long-term Gas Sale Agreement for 5.5 - 16.5 PJ per

annum of UCG syngas for the Centauri 1 Power Station; and

3. Issue of 30,000,000 fully paid Ordinary Carbon Energy

shares to Eneabba Gas Limited in exchange for the Sargon

Group of coal tenements.

Bligh Govt gives green light to

thousands of jobs

Minister for Mines and Energy Geoff Wilson has given the go

ahead for two competing industries to tap into Queensland's

rich coalfields in a move that will create thousands of jobs

across the state. Minister Wilson said State Cabinet had

approved trials - near Chinchilla and Kingaroy in southern

Queensland - of underground coal gasification, a potential

new energy source. "We've come up with a solution that

gives certainty to industry in tough times. This is about

creating jobs and keeping the economy going," Mr Wilson

said. Two industries will benefit from our decision, but the

ultimate beneficiaries will be Queensland's environment and

our economy. This will generate thousands of jobs for

workers around the state," he said. The State Government's

decision will pave the way for the joint development of coal

seam gas - a multi-billion dollar industry - and trials of

underground coal gasification. "Coal seam gas is powering

ahead in Queensland.

It's a multi-billion dollar industry. Its success is due in no

small part to our world-leading gas scheme which requires

big electricity companies to source at least 13% of their

energy from gas-fired generation. We're increasing it to 18%

by 2020. "Gas is a vital path to a cleaner energy future. It

has half the emissions of coal-fired power and it's in

abundance in the Surat Basin which is set to rival the Bowen

Basin as the state's economic powerhouse. "Our gas

scheme is an investment in people who live and work in

cities and towns like Gladstone, Miles, Chinchilla and Dalby.

It's an investment in their future," Mr Wilson said. Cabinet's

decision to progress thousands of hectares of gas acreage

towards tenure approval will give certainty to the LNG

projects. "When these projects are up and running, they will

inject billions of dollars into Queensland's economy and lead

to around 1750 jobs on site, and up to 4,000 jobs during

construction stages." Mr Wilson said three pilot projects

would also be able to tap into Queensland's rich coal

resources. ‘These pilots plan to convert coal seams into a

synthetic gas for power generation, industrial heating, diesel

fuel and ammonia," Mr Wilson said. "Underground coal

gasification is an emerging technology that's largely untested

in Australia. We're going to allow trials under strict monitoring

conditions. "They will have to meet the most stringent

environmental standards," he said.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Cougar Energy gains further green

light for underground coal gasification

project

Cougar Energy has advised that the Queensland

Government has granted the Company’s application for

Mineral Development Licence (MDL) 385, which confirms the

Government’s recently announced policy to support the

progressive development of Cougar’s Kingaroy

underground coal gasification (UCG) project.

Belarus

More efforts needed to involve investors

in field development in Belarus

National Center of Legal Information of the

Republic of Belarus 28/01/2009

Organizations of the Ministry of the Natural Resources and

Environmental Protection of Belarus should step up their

efforts to attract investors to develop deposits in Belarus,

Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection

of Belarus Leonty Khoruzhik said at a session of the

ministry, BelTA has learnt. “The geology department and our

local offices together with local executive committees should

spare no effort to find investors to develop deposits,

especially the ones for the construction industry,” the

minister underlined, in line with a programme to develop

Belarus’ own raw-material base for the metallurgic industry,

the detail exploration of the Okolovsk and preliminary

exploration of Novoselky deposits of iron ore were

completed at a quickened pace. The necessary paperwork

has been prepared to hold the competition to hand these

deposits over to concessions. “Our objective in 2009 is to

expand the number of objects in concession by adding other

deposits in order to attract foreign investment to develop

them,” the minister added.

Leonty Khoruzhik said that in general the 2008 objectives of

the national exploration programme to develop Belarus’

raw-material base were fulfilled. In 2009, the prospecting

and preliminary exploration of cement raw materials in the

Krichev, Kostyukovichi and Krasnoselsk sites are to be

completed. “We should carry out prospecting and estimate

work at Lelchitsy site, prepare it for the industrial exploitation

and simultaneously develop technologies of underground

coal gasification and fulfill a set of other

tasks to reduce the energy dependence of the state and

increase the use of our own fuel and energy resources,” the

minister added.

Canada

Alberta to be site of $30-million experiment

to turn underground coal into

syngas - The Calgary Herald, March 17, 2009

Gina Teel

Alberta will be the site of a unique $30-million demonstration

project aimed at unlocking the clean energy potential of the

province’s vast coal reserves. The province is contributing

$8.83 million toward a $30-million underground coal

gasification demonstration project that taps into coal seams

that are too deep to be mined economically — and would

otherwise sit idle — to produce clean, synthesis gas for

power generation. The demonstration project, with Calgary’s

Swan Hills Synfuels LP, is the first of its kind in North

America and, at roughly 1,400 metres below the surface, the

deepest underground coal gasification ever conducted in the

world.

“Following successful exploration, Carbon Energy will supply

UCG syngas to power the proposed Centauri 1 Power

Station, 8 kilometres east of Dongara in Western Australia,”

said Managing Director of Carbon Energy, Andrew Dash.

“Our target was to secure an additional coal resource within

Australia by the end of 2009, in line with our strategy to build

a national resource availability to support the development of

commercial energy projects, based on Carbon Energy’s

world leading UCG technology.”

“We anticipate this transaction will be unconditional by the

middle of 2009, well ahead of our target.”

“This agreement sees Carbon Energy increase its coal

resources by 45% to at least 968Mt and hold major

resources on both the East Coast and West Coast of

Australia, close to growing demand centres for both power

generation and natural gas.”

“The location of the Sargon Group of coal tenements in the

mid-west of Western Australia, are well placed for such a

development. They are adjacent to major infrastructure,

particularly the port of Geraldton and the planned deepwater

Oakajee port both of which are within 70 kilometres.”

The opportunity to bring reasonably priced power generation

to mid-west Western Australia will assist in the establishment

of iron ore mines and provide the power for the planned

Oakajee port, which will support the State Government’s

development plans for the region.

The resource is also well placed to produce synthetic natural

gas for supply to existing gas pipelines that service Perth.

“The agreement is made possible by Carbon Energy’s world

leading UCG technology and our ability to apply our

technology to any suitable coal seam anywhere in the world,”

said Managing Director Andrew Dash. “We are aiming to

replicate our Australian East Coast strategy in Western

Australia and to be a major contributor to the State’s power

and gas needs.“While Western Australia has abundant

reserves of natural gas, most of these are earmarked for

LNG production and export overseas. This has resulted in

record gas prices being achieved for domestic natural gas

sales in recent times.”“Carbon Energy has the potential to

supply an additional source of gas and power into the

Western Australian market at lower cost to industry and

mining operations. In addition, this potential new source of

energy will also improve the State’s energy security.”Under

the Heads of Agreement, ENB will work exclusively with

Carbon Energy to conduct exploration drilling, at ENB’s cost,

to indentify a coal resource of at least 300 Mt (JORC

inferred), that is suitable for UCG and to negotiate a Share

Sale Agreement and a Gas Sale Agreement to give effect to

the transaction.

Currently in the front end engineering stage, the integrated

gasification combined cycle technology (IGCC) plant would

turn sub-bituminous coal into synthesis gas and hydrogen.

The initiative is in conjunction with the Canadian Clean

Power Coalition, which is chaired by Epcor senior vicepresident,

David Lewin.

“In order to use these vast coal resources in the province,

these are the kinds of things that need to be looked at in the

early stages from a research and development point of

view,” he said of Synfuel's project.

India

Singareni to invite fresh bids for

power project

B Krishna Mohan / Chennai/ Hyderabad March

23, 2009,

State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL)

will invite fresh tenders for upgrading its 6Mw power plant to

20 Mw at Kothagudem in Khammam district of Andhra

Pradesh. The project is estimated to cost about Rs 100

crore.

Speaking to Business Standard, SCCL director (operations)

JV Dattatreyulu said the company was revising the specifications

of the project and would call for fresh tenders for the

project in a month as the earlier attempt received a

lukewarm response. Meanwhile, the company has called for

expressions of interest for forming a joint venture for an

underground coal gasification project in Andhra Pradesh. It

would take about three months for the notice inviting tenders

(NITs) to be processed.

The joint venture, among other things, would assess the

availability of underground coal that can be converted into

gas and extracted. This would involve drilling at multiple

locations and the results would be analysed to see if the

project is technically feasible. “The piloting of the project has

already begun. The challenge before us is to prove its

potential for large scale operations,” he said.

Coal India may invite tenders by June

2009

27 Mar 2009, 2139 hrs IST, Debjoy Sengupta, ET

Bureau

KOLKATA: Coal India expects to invite tenders for extracting

coal from underground mines by June 2009. It has already

concluded a few rounds of pre-NIT (notice for inviting

tenders) meetings, and has sent pre-NITs to all the nine

shortlisted parties.

“In gasification, your two best friends are pressure and

temperature, so the deeper you go, the more pressure; the

more pressure, the better gasification,” said Martin Lambert,

chief executive of the privately-held Swan Hills Synfuels.

The project also has the future potential of using the coal

seams for carbon capture and storage, the province said.

The project uses an in situ process that involves the injection

of oxygen and saline water into coal seams to convert it into

synthesis gas, which can be used as fuel for clean power

generation. Synfuel’s goal is to develop a commercial

operation, selling the syngas for clean power generation and

the captured C02 to oilfield players who can use it in

enhanced oil recovery.

The full-scale demo project is located 17 kilometres

southwest of Swan Hills, Alta. — an area rife with old

established oilfields — and will tap the Mannville coal

formation, a vast seam that runs from Grande Prairie to

Calgary. Lambert said this higher quality coal has never

before been considered to have any value, due in part to its

being out of reach. “If this project works the way we think it

will work, and the demo project will prove it, then what you’ve

done is created value in all of that coal for all Albertans,” he

said. But the greatest benefits of underground gasification is

likely environmental.

To begin with, there’s no need to surface mine the coal, as is

the case with other types of coal gasification. And as it

occurs at depths more than 1,000 meters, no fresh water is

used in the operation. “We’re going very deep underground

because then you do not worry about fresh water, because

its saline water,” said Eddy Isaacs, executive director of the

Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI), through which the

province is providing the funds. “The deeper you are the less

likely that you would harm the environment,” he added.

Isaacs said the demonstration project is a first step to testing

the technology. Though not new — underground coal

gasification has been used commercially outside of North

America for 40 years — the technology has to be tweaked

for coal types and refined for geological formations.

Doug Horner, Alberta’s minister of advanced education and

technology, said it’s important to examine better ways to

better use the province’s coal supply.

“This is another project where our province is poised to open

new markets and be a global leader in clean energy

development,” he said in a release. Lambert, however, has

no doubts the technology will work, and calls the demonstration

project “more like fine tuning the parameters.”

Synfuel has already drilled a pair of production wells and will

start producing gas in June, he said. AERI, which has an

interest in developing clean technologies and nextgeneration

technologies, is also involved in a surface coal

gasification project with Epcor for a 270-megawatt generating

station at its Genesee site, west of Edmonton.

South Africa

Sasol completes basic designs for

Secunda underground coal gasification

demo plant By: Loni Prinsloo 3rd April

2009

Coal-to-liquids (CTL) giant Sasol has completed basic

engineering designs for a demonstration-scale underground

coal gasification plant to be built on an otherwise stranded

deep coal seam near its CTL plant in Secunda. When

commissioned, the plant will be expanding the currently

envisaged UCG pilot project Sasol UCG business manager

Johan Brand comments that UCG is generally cheaper than

conventional coal mining and surface gasification methods,

owing to the fact that the coal mining and gasification is

carried out in one phase. "By the time the gas is released

from the well, the coal has already been beneficiated to such

an extent that it can directly be used in a boiler without even

treating the coal," he adds. Also, the transportation of the

gas in pipes is more efficient than by road, rail or conveyor.

UCG technology will extend the lifespan of the Secunda

complex by using coal that is difficult to mine. The technology

proved a 95% coal extraction, exceeding that of

conventional underground mining of deep seams, which has

an extraction of 37%.

Brand says that UCG provides a commercially competitive

energy supply with a decreased environmental footprint.

The method reduces the potential for soil contamination

because no handling and storage of large volumes of ash

and slag in ash dumps is required. Also, no large tracts of

land are buried under overburden rock and tailings dumps;

largely eliminating possible acid mine drainage caused by

reactions of the overburden rock with atmospheric water and

air.

Lastly, Brand says that the mining technology provides the

opportunity to extract coal that would otherwise be unmineable

as improved drilling techniques allow access to larger

coal volumes at reduced costs.

Underground Coal Gasification for

Sasol and Eskom Edited version of a

interesting article from Guanteng

Business News, 09/02/09

South Africa is endowed with about 192-billion tons of coal

reserves of which 32-billion tons are viewed as economically

extractable. Until quite recently, there was little prospect of

exploiting this pent-up energy potentialBohlweki-SSI

Environmental was appointed by Sasol as well as Eskom to

undertake Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for

these companies who are particularly interested in the

160-billion tons in resource the country has no current plans

to exploit.The technology that could potentially unlock this

potential is known as Underground Coal Gasification, or

otherwise known as “UCG” which is now been tested locally.

"With the pre-NITs sent, each CIL-subsidiary will customise

the final tenders in tune with their mines. This is expected to

take some time," said a top CIL official involved in the

process. CIL has shortlisted nine companies from about 17

who had shown interests in the initial expression of

interersts. These include Essel Mining, Reliance Infrastructure

and Essar Mining from India and Zheng Zhou Coal

Mining and Machinery Group as well as Tian Di Science &

Technology Co Ltd from China.

Walter Mining South East Asia, an Australian company, has

also been shortlisted. At the same time, Eucuirus BgT

Europe GmbH and European Ventures Ltd are from Europe.

A UK-based mining major, Walter Mining, which showed

interest in the projects, is also on the shortlist. The coal

major has decided to focus on underground mining to meet

future demand for coal. The company has identified seven

blocks for these projects for which the shortlisted private

parties will be awarded contracts. Opening up seven new

underground mines is part of CIL's plan to enhance coal

production from such mines in order to balance the supply of

coal from open cast and underground mines. Currently, coal

production is heavily skewed in favour of open cast mines.

Poland

Clean and safe energy generation in

Poland

2009-01-22

Poland could well specialise on a worldwide scale as a major

promoter in technologies of underground coal gasification,

the production of synthetic gas and liquid fuels from coal and

also a future technology consisting of the production of

hydrogen with the use of coal – such is the opinion of

Andrzej Siemaszko, director of the National Contact Point of

EU Research Programmes. Poland has two major strong

points to its benefit: thirteen years of experience in pumping

carbon dioxide underground and modelling and controlling

the process, and, huge deposits of coal, unfeasible for

mining but ideal for subterranean gasification.

Poland could lead Europe in the geological identification,

preparing and monitoring CO2 storage processes (CCS) as

well as in the yet undeveloped fields of clean coal technologies

for subterranean gasification and production of synthetic

fuels and hydrogen. Safe coal processing methods can be

used directly to modernise Polish power stations which the

European Union expects to undertake soon. Technologies

comprising the catching – i.e. gasification - combustion in

oxygen or cleaning exhaust gases are to be developed in

several EU flagship projects, with efforts to ensure that two

of those are situated in Poland (in Bełchatów and

Kędzierzyn).

It can also be used in industrial heating and even the

manufacture of hydrogen or ultra clean diesel fuel.

'Innovative' project Steve Walters, a director of Aberdeenbased

Thornton New Energy, a subsidiary of BCG Energy,

said producing electricity from gas generated underground

from coal allowed it to be processed so CO2 could be

removed, ensuring very low emissions. Mr Walters added:

"The award of the country's first UCG licence is a significant

milestone in Scotland moving towards new, cleaner forms of

electricity generation and it helps ensure that we won't have

to be too reliant on importing energy from other

countries in the future.

AnTech sets sights on clean energy

alternative

by: OilOnline Friday, January 30, 2009

AnTech Ltd is exploring alternative sources of clean energy,

particularly underground coal gasification (UCG).

The Role of Drilling and Well CompletionRecently, Toni

Miszewski, Managing Director of AnTech, presented a

session entitled "Drilling processes for UCG: coiled tubing

drilling and well completion" at the Underground Coal

Gasification training conference sponsored by the UCG

Partnership in association with Imperial College London. The

week-long event, which was limited to just 25 participants,

took place at Imperial College London, and was attended by

individuals from a range of disciplines and industries.

The Clean Energy Alternative

According to Miszewski, operating costs and the amount of

capital required to carry out UCG is potentially much lower

than traditional extraction methods. "Because less human

interaction is required to carry out the process, it means that

health and safety levels are higher," said Miszewski.

“AnTech COLTÔ BHA Offers Drilling Accuracy Required for

UCGHow does AnTech's downhole technology fit into the

picture. The CRIP method, which has undergone extensive

testing in European and American coal seams, lends itself

particularly well to the use of AnTech's COLT, the

company's award-winning bottom hole assembly. This

approach creates dedicated inseam boreholes using drilling

and completion technology adapted from the oil and gas

industry. Because the COLT is compact and easy to control,

it can be manoeuvred in such a way that accurate drilling of

the inseam borehole is achieved, effectively and economically.

Coupled with the reduced cost of UCG, using the

COLT to drill the borehole seams makes the solution

commercially viable. A further benefit of using the COLT is

that rapid build rates and extremely quick set-up mean that

the overall cost of the UCG operation could be further

reduced.

Call for UCG Drilling PartnersAnTech is currently conducting

a search for companies interested in the possibility of using

the COLT to carry out field tests or for commercial operations.

Given the renewed enthusiasm and range of research

trials carried out around the world in Asia Pacific, Europe

and North America, AnTech is keen to work in cooperation

with a forward-thinking partner to take the UCG process to

the next level.

Although the EIAs to be undertaken for the Sasol and Eskom

UCG projects will provide confirmation on the possible

negative environmental impacts associated with UCG [i.e.

noise levels, air pollution, the effects on soil (i.e. subsidence)

and water, loss of captured Co2 through fissures in the earth

surface etc], the following were identified and assumed as

environmental advantages associated with this coal recovery

method:

No above-ground scarring of the earth; It extends the

lifespan of the complex by using coal that is difficult to

mine;The UCG technology proved a 95% coal extraction and

far exceeds that of conventional mining (the current

extraction percentage is 37%)It is a commercially competitive

energy supply;No handling and storage of large volumes of

ash and slag in ash dumps is required, that are exposed to

ash leaching, and have the potential to cause soil

contamination;Decrease in environmental footprint (i.e. no

large tracks of land are not buried under overburden rock

and tailings dumps and their would be no acid mine drainage

caused by reactions of the overburden rock with atmospheric

water and air);There are numerous usages of the gas (e.g.

gas turbines for electricity generation, fuel gas, raw gas etc;

and There is reduced coal wastage / increased efficiencyThe

climate imperative

The other big assumption is that UCG offers a coal based

solution that is climate friendly. At present, more than 70% of

South African energy comes from coal, and Bohlweki-SSI is

of the view that this technology may become very important

in future when calculating the cost associated with carbondioxide

emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

UCG could be an attractive choice for companies to obtain

carbon credits. It further provides the opportunity to extract

coal that would otherwise be un-minable as improved drilling

techniques now allow for access to larger coal volumes at

reduced cost. At this stage, it is perceived to have a lower

environmental impact than other mining or coal utilisation

processes. This will however be confirmed by the environmental

assessments to be undertaken by Bohlweki-SSI and

its team of specialists.

UK

First clean coal to be extracted - Coal

is converted into gas while still underground

New "clean" technology is to

be used to extract coal from massive

untapped seams under Fife and the

Firth of Forth for the first time.

Thornton New Energy has been granted the UK's first

licence from the Coal Authority to use a process

called underground coal gasification (UCG).

The firm plans to drill into coalfields and convert coal into

combustible gas while it is still underground.

The gas can then be used for electricity generation.

The report recommends more detailed geological, chemical

and engineering studies that identify the optimal Indiana

sites and also recommends that state officials initiate

discussions for developing a pilot plant by establishing

“cooperative agreements” with organizations and companies

having expertise in the process, including Lawrence

Livermore National Laboratory, Ergo Exergy Technologies

Inc. and Linc Energy.

New Life for Coal Gasification

Energy secretary reconsiders Bushera

decision to kill clean-coal project.

Jeffrey Johnston March 16, 2009

ENERGY SECRETARY Steven Chu is reviewing a Bush

Administration decision to cancel a large-scale, clean-coal

gasification project because of anticipated cost overruns, an

aide told C&EN last week.FutureGen was to have been a

carbon capture and sequestration project that would

generate electricity by burning synthetic fuel formulated at a

coal gasification pilot plant. It would have pulled out 90% of

the carbon dioxide generated and injected the greenhouse

gas underground near the plant.

The Department of Energy has built two similar "integrated

gasification combined cycle" (IGCC) projects, but this one

would have been the largest at 275 MW and the only one to

capture and inject CO2. It had been set for construction in

Mattoon, Ill., when it was cancelled and the money was set

aside for a larger number of smaller but similar projects.’Chu

believes FutureGen has merit, and he is personally

reviewing it to see if there are modifications that can be

made to improve it and lower its costs," says Stephanie

Mueller, Chu's press secretary. Chu will also meet soon with

an industry consortium that would have built the plant, she

adds.Many in Congress applauded the possible reversal,

particularly those from the Illinois delegation, which had

strongly objected to the cancellation.

Also last week, FutureGen was the subject of a March 11

hearing before the House Science & Technology Subcommittee

on Energy & Environment. The subcommittee took up

two reports that are highly critical of the Bush

Administration's decision. A Government Accountability

Office report (GAO-09-465T) charges that the DOE cost

overrun projections used to justify FutureGen's cancellation

were wrong. GAO's Mark Gaffigan told the subcommittee

that rather than being $900 million over budget, FutureGen's

cost overrun would be $300 million over budget. Originally,

the project was expected to cost around $950 million,

three-quarters of which was to be paid by taxpayers.

Gaffigan stressed the project's importance to continued use

of coal and noted that some $3.4 billion in the Obama

Administration's stimulus package is set aside for fossil

energy R&D, which could have significant influence on Chu's

FutureGen decision. A second report by subcommittee staff

blasted Bush's DOE, charging it had manipulated documents

to justify its decision to kill FutureGen.

USA

Report pinpoints promising sites in

five southwestern Indiana counties for

UCG Purdue University News Service by Emil

Venere, March 4, 2009

A new report pinpoints promising sites in five south-western

Indiana counties for underground operations that can convert

coal into a gas for electricity generation, production of

chemicals, and plastics and fuels for cars, trucks and aircraft.

Researchers from Purdue University and the Indiana

Geological Survey prepared the report, which will be

presented to the advisory panel of the Indiana Center for

Coal Technology Research. The center is part of the Energy

Center in Purdue’s Discovery Park.

The report identifies the best sites for the underground coal

gasification operations using criteria established by Arvind

Varma, Purdue’s R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor

of Chemical Engineering and Head of the School of

Chemical Engineering, and former research scientist Evgeny

Shafirovich, currently assistant research professor at the

University of Texas at El Paso.Varma and Shafirovich

established seven primary criteria, including two major

requirements: the coal deposit should be at least 1 meter

and preferably 2 meters thick, and it should be located at

least 60 meters underground.

The Indiana sites are located in the south-western portion of

the state in two large coal deposits, the Springfield and

Seelyville coal beds” Indiana has seven major coal seams,

but only these two have the largest coal reserves and are

sufficiently thick for underground gasification,” Varma said.

“The coal in these two seams represents nearly 50 percent

of all the coal in the state, and a good fraction of it satisfies

our criteria for underground gasification.”Indiana possesses

deep stores of coal that would be ideal for underground coal

gasification but are otherwise uneconomical to mine, he said.

Another advantage of underground coal gasification is that it

would enable the state to more efficiently capture and store -

or sequester - carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

The report identifies nine “promising zones” in the two seams

for potential operations in Knox, Gibson, Vanderburgh,

Warrick and Posey counties. A follow-up study is required to

provide more detailed information about the sites and to

perform geological, chemical and engineering evaluations,

Varma said.

The report was written by Varma, Shafirovich and Indiana

Geological Survey geologists Maria Mastalerz, Agnieszka

Drobniak and John Rupp.

A pilot plant is planned in Wyoming, with Australia-based

Linc Energy Ltd. expected to break ground in the fourth

quarter of 2009. The company aims to produce a minimum

of 40,000 barrels per day of diesel and jet fuel from its initial

commercial operations.

Linc Energy's technical team continues to work on many

innovative ways to handle the unique challenges to be

confronted in the Red River Delta Area. The Company sees

this as an opportunity to develop portable, skid-mounted

production units that will provide Linc Energy with a set of

tools to routinely and cost effectively undertake trial UCG

projects in any location in the future.It is intended that Stage

1 of the program that includes sixty days of gas production

will be completed within twelve months. The purpose of this

stage is to determine the suitability of the Red River Delta

coal for underground gasification. If successful, the companies

will move into Stage 2 of the program; being the

development of a commercial UCG field to provide syngas

for much needed power generation in Vietnam.

CCS News

New era for fossil fuels as first carbon

capturing power plant begins work

French power station, leading the way in the world's sluggish

move towards using environmentally vital CCS technology.

The world's first retrofit of a power plant with Carbon Capture

and Storage technology will begin operating this month in

the south of France. At a power plant at Lacq, energy

company Total has upgraded an existing gas-fired boiler

with CCS technology – a crucial step towards reducing

carbon emissions from fossil-fuel power plants worldwide.

With renewable energy sources a long way from covering

the world's increasing demand for energy, many experts

believe that developing reliable technology to allow countries

to burn fossil fuels without releasing dangerous amounts of

CO2 into the atmosphere is essential to avoid the worst

impacts of climate change. Experts welcomed Total's

achievement but added that it highlighted how Britain was

being left behind in the development of an important

technology to head off climate change.

"CCS remains the most important initiative that needs to be

implemented both here and around the world in reducing

emissions from coal, gas and oil-fired power stations," said

Environment Agency chairman Chris Smith.

"[But this project] re-emphasises the importance of making

sure that Britain takes an early opportunity to put itself in the

lead worldwide in taking the technology forward.” Stuart

Haszeldine, professor of geology and an expert in CCS at

the University of Edinburgh, was more scathing. "The UK

has been first to stoke up interest in CCS, in the 1990s. But

since then, CCS has not received any significant government

support to make any real projects happen."

The 60m euro Lacq project will transport and store 60,000

tonnes of carbon dioxide every year in the nearby depleted

gas field at Rousse – once the biggest onshore natural gas

field in Europe, but which is now almost empty. It is the first

to link together all parts of the carbon capture chain from

burning natural gas to isolating CO2 from flue gases and

burying it underground.

Uzbekistan

Linc Energy holds a majority interest

in Yerostigaz,

Linc Energy now holds a 74% majority interest in Yerostigaz,

a joint stock company located in Angren, Uzbekistan.

Yerostigaz has operated continually since 1961, producing

Syngas for use in the Angren Power Station.The Yerostigaz

UCG operations were commissioned in 1961 and by the end

of 1965 it was producing approximately 160,000 m3 of gas

an hour (i.e. in less than 4 years the production capacity of

1.4 billion m3 of gas per year was achieved). All gas

produced was supplied to the Angren Power Station.

Currently Yerostigaz is meeting its production targets by

producing and delivering 1 million m3 of UCG syngas per

day, equating to 30 million m3 of UCG syngas per month for

the Angren Power Station. Linc Energy is also pleased to

announce that in a report prepared in February 2009 by the

Uzbekistan Cabinet Ministers to their President, it was noted

that Yerostigaz was the best performing coal company in

Uzbekistan. We are very pleased with the progress being

made by the team at Yerostigaz and are looking forward to

even greater progress in the future. Linc Energy is planning

to assist Yerostigaz further over the coming months by

working on a number of improvements including the

replacement of the existing original air compressors with

more modern and efficient plant and the improvement and

replacement of some of the drilling equipment and procedures,

which Linc Energy believes will add significantly to the

overall profitability of Yerostigaz.

Vietnam

Site selected for Vietnam UCG trial

project

Work continues to progress on the Vietnam UCG trial project

previously announced, a collaboration between VINACOMIN

(Vietnamese State Owned Corporation), Marubeni Coal Pty

Ltd (Japanese Private Equity Company) and Linc Energy.

The site for the trial has now been selected and is approximately

60 kilometres southeast of Hanoi within the Red River

Delta, with easy access to a region that is increasingly

energy hungry.

Talks to finalise the ultimate contractual details and

commencement for Stage 1 of the program are near

conclusion. There are only minor issues left to resolve and it

is anticipated that the final contracts will be signed in the

coming weeks.

Philippe Paelinck of Alstom, the engineeering company that

designed and built the CCS equipment at Lacq, said the

experiment was an important milestone. "We first proved the

feasibility of retrofitting an installation to carbon capture and

storage, but also this will be the first demonstration in

Europe of CCS with [existing] integrated CO2 pipeline

transportation and storage." De Marliave said Total chose to

test oxyfuel because it could potentially save costs in future.

"Our calculations showed that, with oxycombustion in that

type of application, you could reduce the cost of capture –

which is a large part of the cost of the CCS chain – around

two-thirds of the cost roughly. For just capture, existing post

combustion technologies would cost you something like 70

euros per tonne of CO2. Oxycombustion could reduce this to

35 euros per tonne."

Despite that, he said Total was still open to the investigating

the other types of CCS technology, both pre- and postcombustion.

"We are not set on one technology. We

selected oxycombusiton for the pilot but it doesn't mean that

we are not very much interested in post-combustion as well."

Plans for government-funded CCS demonstration plants

across Europe have been moving slowly. The EU wants 12

demonstration plants in operation next decade and has

reserved 300m carbon credits from the next stage of the

European emissions trading scheme to help fund the

technology. In January, the European Commission proposed

earmarking €1.25bn to kickstart carbon capture and storage

(CCS) at 11 coal-fired plants across Europe, including four in

Britain: the Kingsnorth plant in Kent, Longannet in Fife,

Tilbury in Essex and Hatfield in Yorkshire would share

€250m under the two-year scheme.

15 April 2009

LAUNCH OF THE GLOBAL CARBON

CAPTURE AND STORAGE INSTITUTE

On 15 April, at the inaugural meeting of foundation members

in Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Rudd formally

launched the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.

The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute is being

established by the Australian Government to accelerate

information sharing and the global deployment of carbon

capture and storage (CCS) technology. The Institute will

help shape an international solution to climate change

through research, the dissemination of information and by

building momentum for the G8 goal of 20 large scale CCS

demonstration projects globally by 2020. The Institute has

received strong and widespread international support with

85 bodies, including 16 national Governments and more

than 40 major companies, signing on as foundation

members and collaborating participants. More members are

expected to join by 1 July 2009 when the Institute will

become a separate legal entity. The Government appointed

Mr Nick Otter as interim CEO and recently appointed Mr

James D. Wolfensohn to the position of Chair of the

Institute’s International Advisory Panel. For more information,

including a list of members and participants, visit the

Prime Minister’s website at

http://www.pm.gov.au/media/Release/2009/me

dia_release_0913.cfm

Reusing an existing pipeline that has been transporting

natural gas from Rousse to Lacq for 50 years, Total

engineers plan to push the carbon dioxide from the power

plant in the other direction, injecting the gas into the Rousse

reservoir at a depth of around 4,500m. The Lacq project will

run for two years, after which engineers will monitor the

Rousse gas field to demonstrate that the carbon dioxide

remains safely trapped inside.

Last year, the Schwarze Pumpe power station in north

Germany became the first demonstration experiment to build

a 12MW fossil fuel-fired boiler from scratch with full CCS – it

will bury 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year 3,000m below the

surface of the depleted Altmark gas field.

Despite agreement from almost all sides that CCS must be

made commercial if the world can ever hope to meet its

carbon-reduction targets, a full-scale system remains years

away, largely because of the costs involved in its development.

As a result, many leading power companies have

been reluctant to fund CCS individually, arguing that

governments should also shoulder some of the financial

risks.

The UK government wants to fund a single demonstration

plant using post-combustion capture technology and is

running a competition to decide which new power station will

get the go-ahead. Within the next few weeks, ministers are

expected to announce proposals on how to fund further CCS

projects in the UK beyond the competition.

But the British government's procrastination has forced many

CCS projects planned in the past decade to be abandoned

or moved abroad. These include BP's plans to build a carbon

capture plant at Peterhead and Centrica's Eston Grange

project.

Haszledine also criticised the lack of research effort in the

UK, saying just over £6m has been spent on CCS research

in the UK in the past decade compared with $2bn to date in

Canada, and annual spends of around £40m in Norway and

several hundreds of millions of dollars in Australia. New CCS

demonstration projects are due to start operating later this

year in the United States and Australia.

At Lacq, Total has fitted one of the plant's 30MW gas-fired

boilers with oxyfuel technology, where the fossil fuel is

burned in an atmosphere enriched with oxygen. The

resulting exhaust gas is then composed almost entirely of

carbon dioxide and water vapour, which can be easily

separated and stored.

"Total needs to master this new technology," said Luc de

Marliave, climate change coordinator at the energy

company. "Oxycombustion had never been tested at this

scale in such an integrated CCS scheme."

April

European Economic Congress 2009, Katowice,

Session on Clean Coal technologies

Michael Green is a panel member

Coal Research Forum Meeting,

22nd April, Houldsworth Building, Leeds University

Kenneth Fergusson presenting

May

Third EU - South Africa Working Group on Coal Meeting

5th & 6th May Pretoria, South Africa

Julie Lauder presenting

ACI Carbon Capture and Storage Conference

13th & 14th May Berlin, Germany

http://www.acius.net/wiki.aspx/Conferences/Upcoming?view=overview&id=121

June

SMi Conference

London 17th -18th June

UCGP will be holding a UCG Workshop at this event led by Dr. Michael Green,

any members interested in attending or presenting please let us know.

Julie Lauder presenting - Kenneth Fergusson Chairing

All UCGP Members receive a substantial discount on attendance fees

http://www.smi-online.co.uk/events/overview.asp?is=5&ref=3044

September

COAL-GEN Europe

Silesia, Katowice, Poland, 1st – 3rd September

UCGP Members receive a 20% discount on registration fees

http://cge09.events.pennnet.com/fl/content.cfm?NavId=8523&Language=Engl

26th Annual Pittsburgh Coal Conference

Westin Convention Centre, Pittsburgh, PA. USA

21st – 24th September

UCGP will be running a half day UCG tutorial ahead of the main conference.

Rohan Courtney Chairing and presenting, Julie Lauder presenting

http://www.engr.pitt.edu/pcc/2009conf.html

October

ICCS&T

Cape Town, South Africa 26th 29th Oct 09,

http://www.iccst.info/live/index.php

2010

5th UCGP International Conference & Workshop

London 22nd- 23rd March 2010

UCGP International Conference, Australia

October/November 2010.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

UCGP NEWS

High Importance:

Australia Launches Global CCS Institute – UCGP Foundation Member.

As reported in the last newsletter, UCGP has become a Foundation Member of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute

(GCCSI) which was launched last November. As GCCSI, is headquartered in Canberra, Rohan Courtney took the opportunity to

visit the GCCSI team when he was in Australia recently. The Australian Prime Minister, The Hon Kevin Rudd, formally

announced the establishment of the Institute in April 2009, and announced the foundation members. UCGP Advisory Council

member, Dr Cliff Mallett of Carbon Energy will attend the first meeting as the UCGP representative. The launch has attracted

major energy industry names as foundation members including: Alstom, Shell, Mitsubishi Corporation, Xstrata Coal, Anglo-

American, Rio Tinto, Schlumberger and The Climate Group. UCGP is proud to have been give foundation member status of

GCCSI and hopes that all members will support and engage with this initiative which is vital to the future of the fossil fuel

industry. We heartily thank Cliff for his support and representation.

UCGP Advisory Council and Research Group

Since the initial meetings of both groups in London in February this year, both have been active in their support of UCG and the

Partnership. The Research Group has joined forces to push an EU funded UCG training scheme and many members are

working together on collaborative studies and research.The Advisory Council has supported the extended events schedule and

all members have been proactive in promoting UCG in their geographical regions.

Meeting of the UCGP Research Group 9th February 2009

The Research Group held its first meeting prior to the UCG Conference in London. 12 invited members attended from UK,

Russia, Australia, Poland, Slovakia and The Netherlands. A full discussion of the future research needs took place, and areas

identified for collaborative programmes, of which the key topics were UCG with CO2 capture and storage, UCG with enhanced

coal bed methane, and environmental impact assessment. Several research networks are being created amongst partners in

Eastern Europe and academic institutions, with the aim of developing collaborative programmes in the areas of interest. Efforts

will be made to ensure that the networks embrace European needs and those of all others that are interested. The development

and exchange of personnel with UCG interests will be stimulated. An application for funding for personal exchanges and training

will be sought through the EU Marie Curie programme. Full minutes of the meeting are available on the UCGP website.

Meeting of the UCGP Advisory Council 9th February 2009

The initial Advisory Council meeting was chaired by Rohan Courtney and attended by representatives from Australia, South

Africa, Europe and Indonesia.

Julie Lauder outlined the current plans of the Partnership and asked the Council for advice and support in achieving increased

membership, expansion of training, workshops and conferences, speakers at other conferences, research activities, industry

best practice, increased links with other organisations, articles and press publications. The website needs updating and plans to

provide full information on all members by the introduction of a membership directory. The Council discussed a number of

matters and the following is a summary of the decisions made:

Increased membership could best be achieved by occasionally holding the conference outside the UK

The Australian Gold Coast was mentioned as a possible location for a conference in 2010 or 2011, Cliff Mallett agreed to assist

with the planning of this potential conference. South Africa and China were suggested as possible locations in 2012 or 2013.

Also, late March was offered as a better date in the year for the London conference which could be held every two years. In all

cases site visits should be incorporated where possible, and a conference dinner held.

Each Advisory Council member outside the UK would become the link person with other UCGP members for their region This

would facilitate better communication and assist in our efforts to provide speakers at local conferences where members would be

asked to represent the Partnership. It was further agreed that we would look to expand the training courses and workshops in

other locations, which the council supporting. The next UK Course has been fixed for the week beginning 14 September 09 at

Imperial College, London. It was hoped to add another course a different location this year and Advisory Council members were

requested to suggest locations, hosts and partners, and information about possible links with Universities and other energy/coal

groups with whom UCGP could have reciprocal arrangements.

We need to redesign the website so that it becomes more of an information base for governments and regulators to understand

best practice in UCG and provide more reference materials, on a completely unbiased basis, relating to environmental, technical,

planning and value issues. On the subject of best practice the Council agreed that it should be the aim of the Partnership to

strive for best practice amongst its members. How this should be achieved will be the subject of further discussion. The Council

fully supported the idea of a Research Group for UCGP and noted the main topic of discussion was likely to be CCS. It was felt

that the operators should dictate the subjects rather than the researchers.

The Council supported the plan by management to convert UCG Partnership Limited to a Registered Charity.

It was agreed that the members of the Council would serve for a three year term and then offer themselves for re-election or

stand down as they chose. Each member of the Council will be asked to determine the term of their first period of office – one,

two or three years – so that elections could be held annually from next year and we could achieve a situation where not every

member of the Council would be up for election at the end of the three year period

UCGP hopes to change legal status to a charity

With the support of the Advisory Council the UCG Partnership is researching a change in its status from a limited company to a

UK Registered Charity. We are delighted to have the assistance and help of the legal firm Nabarro LLP who have joined us as a

Founding Member. Nabarro has kindly agreed to undertake this work on a pro bono basis and we will update all members on

progress.

UCGP Event Reports

4th UCGP International Conference and Workshop on Underground Coal

Gasi cation. 10th- 11th February 2009

More than 120 delegates registered for the two-day UCG Workshop and Conference. The Workshop was hosted by Deloitte at

their new Auditorium in New Street Square, London and the conference day was at RBS, Bishopsgate. The programme featured

a variety of key speakers and presentations from around the globe: Russia Australia, Portugal, Slovakia, Germany, Poland and

the UK. Senior Delegates from 35 nations participated in our most ambitious conference programme to date. The Workshop day

was exceptionally well chaired by UCGP’s Kenneth Fergusson. His summing up of the day was well rounded, informative and

thought provoking and a true reflection of the varied content and topics. Many interesting questions were raised throughout the

day, especially in relation to patents. Delegates were also glad to make full use of the networking opportunities during the

breaks. Presentations included: CCS, from Schlumberger, C02 Storage in coal seams, UCG research in Slovakia, Coal Deposits

in Slovakia, and the Potential for UCG in Wales, Mathematical modelling, Energy Patents, and UCG Drilling Techniques.

The conference day led to further full and informed presentations, the highlights being an exceptional and well received keynote

address by Milton Catelin of the WCI and the Bloodwood Creek report by Carbon Energy. Other presentations included The

Russian Experience by Prof. Kreynin of Gazprom, Cougar Energy overview of UCG by Len Walker, an update of the work at

Angren and UCG in Central Asia by Bruce Gaston, Project HUGE by Jan Ragout, UCG in Poland by Prof. Jan Palarski, a UCG

Overview and worldwide activity by Dr Michael Green, plus updates on the UCG Partnership and our plans for the coming year.

The overall information sharing and networking surpassed all our previous events to the extent that we have, as mentioned

previously, decided to hold two events in 2010.

Please log into the members section of the website for conferences, 4th UCGP Conference and

Workshop, to view all the presentations, speaker biographies and attendees list.

HUGE Meeting 26-27th Katowice, February 2009

The six-monthly meeting of the HUGE project (Hydrogen from Underground Gasification Europe) was held in Katowice to review

progress and visit the site for practical work. Surface tests on a block of coal have been made and preparations are in hand to

undertake an in-situ experiment in shallow coal, with the aim of maximising hydrogen production. Supporting modelling and

simulation work is underway. Presentations on the project were made at both the Pittsburgh Coal Conference (Oct 08) and the

4th International UCG Conference in London (Feb 09) of the UCG Partnership. Plans are in hand to run a workshop on HUGE at

the next UCGP London conference (March 2010).

EU India Working Group on Coal

Workshop on Underground Coal gasi cation, New Delhi 13th – 14th March 2009

A 2 day workshop on Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) was held in New Delhi, India, under the auspices of the EU-India

Working Group on Coal. The workshop was Co-Chaired by Dr Rajiv Sharma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal and Dr Derek

Taylor, Adviser Security of Supply and Energy Markets, Directorate General for Energy and Transport, European Commission.

The main aim of the workshop was to address known factors related to UCG in India and to inform of advances that would assist

with commercial viability for UCG in India The workshop programme was carefully structured to reflect existing understanding

and knowledge of UCG in India and to promote the current levels of research, development and collaborative work recently

undertaken in Europe and how this has answered many of the lingering concerns of UCG technology.

The meeting attracted nearly 40 interested participants made up of senior personnel from leading India Coal and Energy

companies. All of the attendees were very familiar with the UCG process and the many advantages UCG technology has to offer

but were seeking solutions to technical, economical and regulatory issues. The workshop programme included technical

presentations on UCG including: the history of development; science & technology; technology advances; current industry

practices, environmental issues, site selection criteria and analytical and predictive processes. The amount of gas produced;

costs of UCG plants and infrastructure and skill requirements were the main topics, along with models, economics, and

challenges. In addition, the workshop highlighted the work of the UCG Partnership and the pivotal role it plays in promoting UCG

technology around the world and the possibilities for collaborative work to accelerate the implementation of UCG in India.

The Workshop presenters were:

Ms Julie Lauder, UCG Partnership Ltd. – History of UCG, the potential for UCG in India, the UCG

Partnership

Gerardo Gonzalez, Newcastle University – How UCG with CCS works, the benefits, financial costs

Prof Jan Palarski, Silesian Technical University - UCG in Poland – Research, Progress and opportunities.

Mr. Peter Jackson, IMC Geophysics International - Site Evaluation for UCG, Remote Monitoring of

UCG Processes Underground

Dr Stefan Krause, Keele University - Hydrogeology, Groundwater Contamination and Risk Assessment,

Hydrological Modelling

The five person team of European presenters actively encouraged pertinent questions and comments throughout the whole

event, which made for a highly interactive and extremely informative two days, with excellent and open exchange of knowledge,

opinions and ideas.

Main technical issues raised included: site selection criteria; groundwater contamination and monitoring and control of what is

happening underground.This workshop managed to address many of the previously held concerns and assisted in raising the

levels of interest and also the endeavours of pursuing the commercial potential for UCG in this region. India needs to be involved

with the exchange of information, to help in actively pursuing this cutting edge technology. The presenters acknowledged that

they would be happy to help in this and the idea of a collaborative pilot study in India should be pursued with vigour.

Several of the attendees also made reference to joining the UCG Partnership to further their relationships with UCG technical

specialists. All the presenters were in agreement that the exercise had been an informative and enjoyable experience and one

they would be happy to repeat

The closing remarks by the Co- Chairs highlighted that the workshop had indeed been an overwhelming success and that during

the two day event and networking dinner many professional relationships had been made and that it was no longer a question of

if - but when UCG would become part of the future energy mix in India. To view the workshop presentations please go to the

members section of the UCGP website: conferences, EU India Working Group on Coal UCG Workshop

UK Clean Coal Technologies Networking Mission to Australia – March 2009

Attended by Rohan Courtney

A ten member UK mission to Australia was organised by the British High Commission in Canberra to network with and exchange

information on advancement in clean coal technologies and in particular carbon capture and storage and ways to eliminate or

minimise carbon emissions. We visited CSIRO’s Energy Centre in Newcastle and the Priority Research Centre for Energy at

Newcastle University and the CSIRO/Delta Post combustion capture pilot at Munmorah Power Plant. In Brisbane we toured

QCAT and the Centre for Low Emission Technology (cLET), attended and presented at a specially organised “United

Kingdom/Australia Clean Coal Technologies Symposium” hosted by the British High Commission and the Queensland Department

of Mines and Energy. On the last official day we attended the “c LET-UQ-UK Research Forum on Clean Coal Technologies”

at the University of Queensland. Professor Peter Styles of Keele University and I accepted Cliff Mallett’s kind invitation to

tour Carbon Energy’s UCG plant in Bloodwood Creek and three of us went on to Melbourne to visit the Co2CRC Carbon Capture

laboratories at the University of Melbourne including a briefing on the Otway Project. Prior to the start of the Mission I had visited

the GCCSI team at the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism in Canberra. The UCG (underground coal gasification)

Partnership is a founder member of GCCSI.

This was a hectic visit with 55 presentations packed into 5 days in four different locations. The Mission was made up of three

Professors and four Lecturers/Researchers of UK Universities, the senior portfolio manager of EPSRC (UK Research Council)

and the strategy manager of the UK Energy Technologies Institute, Queensland has made considerable advances in underground

coal gasification which is my area of interest.

What did we learn? Australia is clearly at the forefront of research and development in clean coal technologies and we were all

very impressed with the volume and advancement of a host of work in post combustion capture and low emission technologies

ranging from monitoring storage of Co2 to experiments in dealing with Co2 at source and public perceptions. We each gave

presentations on work being undertaken in the UK and it was very clear to all of us, both hosts and visitors, that this initiative, so

well organised by Lindsay Morgan of the British High Commission, should be a pre-curser to a more formal and on-going jointly

financed research and development activity which should not only include academia from both countries but also government

and industry.

Our hosts were very willing to share information and knowledge and each of us have made a considerable number of new

contacts as a result of this visit. Although we cannot match the excellent weather or provide such lovely ocean views, we look

forward to a return match in the UK.

Join the UCG Partnership Today

Membership Fees

Annual

Membership Fee

Founder Members - Unlimited negotiable

Academic Members - Two places £1,000 + VAT

General Members (100 + employees) - Six places £5,000 + VAT

(50 – 100 employees) - Four places £3,000 + VAT

(20 – 50 employees) - Three places £2,000 + VAT

(10 - 20 employees) - Two places £1,500 + VAT

(Individual or less than 10 employees) - One place £750 + VAT

Reciprocal - One place no charge

Some of the bene ts of Membership

· A network of contacts of individuals, companies and public organizations involved in UCG

· Regular newsletter and updates on new and existing UCG projects around the world

· Employment Register and Job opportunities in UCG

· Investment Opportunities described on the website

· Access to a complete and unique online archive information on all UCG from early days

· Focal point for all information relevant to UCG for members through email, website and seminars,

and access to an inter-active website

· Public and independent information service on UCG and representation at the highest level

· Early advice and "clearing house" for UCG on nancial and technical aspects of UCG projects,

through contacts with energy companies, banking and project nance specialists

· Feasibility studies, collaborative development and other study programmes on UCG

· Tailored support from UCG Partnership for seminars, training courses, work shops (at additional

cost)

· Listings of member companies through consultancy les and website exposure

Contact Us:

Network House,

Bradfield Close,

Woking,

Surrey

GU22 7RE

United Kingdom

Tel: 44 870 803 0665

Fax: 44 870 803 2065

Email :info@ucgp.com

www.ucgp.com