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Old 04-11-2010, 02:15 AM
Sparty Sparty is offline
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Default Central Petroleum ASX: CTP is indeed interested in UCG in its own right.

Note from CTP: Courtesy of the Australian.

The current Joint Ventures with PXA and have not endorsed any evaluation or examination of UCG within the current CTP is indeed interested in UCG in its own right.

Question: What can CTP do with their well over one trillion tons of coal?
Answer: Make over 1.5 trillion barrels of oil!

Interested? Then read the article below and then visit the CTP story presented on a single page.

UCG the next big thing in energy mix April 10, 2010 12:00AM
A WHOLE new industry may be emerging to tap clean and energy- efficient gas from burning coal underground.

What is now a flickering flame is a light on the hill for a potential new industry because the flame is the burn-off of synthetic gas that has come to the surface through a process called underground coal gasification, a possible whole new coal industry to rival the fast-approaching coal seam gas industry and liquid natural gas industry.

The CSG industry showed there was more than one way to use a coal seam.

Traditional coal mining involves digging the stuff up and sending it to a power station to burn it, or putting it on a train to a port and sending it overseas.

CSG involves harvesting the gas that comes with a coal seam and piping it off to market or, in the coming scenario in Queensland, piping it off to Gladstone, freezing it into liquid, then putting it into a ship and sending it overseas.

UCG is another process altogether. Essentially, it is similar to the standard process of burning coal to create power, but in this case the burning is done with the coal still underground.

Setting fire to a coal seam while it is still underground leads to a mix of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and other gases and is known as synthetic gas. That's the stuff coming out of the plant at Kingaroy.

UCG advocates claim the process can produce 20 times as much energy as CSG, quite possible because the UCG process actually creates gas underground, whereas CSG merely harvests what is already there.

The two processes can be used on the same coal seam but not at the same time. A coal seam can be mined for coal-seam methane gas, then set alight, with the resultant gas harvested through UCG. But the process cannot work the other way around because after a coal seam is set alight, there is only a burnt-out husk left underground.

The only possible upside here is that such a deposit would be perfect for clean-coal technology, which involves carbon capture and storage, this being the storage part. It's not a new process, but it's not one with a good reputation.

The only place where it has been widely used is the old Soviet Union, notably the Ukraine and Uzbekistan, where for 40 years it has been the raw material for commercial power plants. It's fair to say neither of these jurisdictions are known for their tough environmental or worker safety regimes.

But CSIRO has been researching the technology for years and there has been more work done around the world, notably in Africa and Canada. An international association for UCG has been set up in London and in the past few months there have been several developments in the UCG industry in Australia, most involving listed companies.

Ross Paul, chief investment officer for alternative energy research firm Bakers Investment, says the present UCG industry is similar to the CSG industry a few years ago. "When the majors get involved, it all changes," he says.

"If you look at the CSG industry a few years ago, it was all local players, but since then, you've had big international companies like Shell and British Gas get involved.

"This has happened as the reserves in the resource have been proven up. UCG is still a way behind, but it's on the same track...."

The Bakers Group the AltEx energy funds... you've seen the charts I post... the data comes from them and they are a crackerjack team.

N.B.For those that don't know UCG needs fairly thick coal seams and CTP has had an independent expert look at their coal and the report was very favorable.

Read more

1 ton of coal converts to ~ 1.5 BOE for around $35 and if the new UCTL process works then it will cost much, much less. Australia the lucky energy country!


Link Provided: www.ucg-gtl.com

 

Disclaimer: The author of this post, may or may not be a shareholder of any of the companies mentioned in this column. No company mentioned has sponsored or paid for this content. Comments on this forum should never be taken as investment advice.

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