LUNCH AND REGISTRATION

Introduction, Objectives, Agenda
Tim Cornitius, editor, Syngas Refiner

Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) Projects
Dr. Michael Blinderman, Director of Operations, Ergo Exergy Technologies, Montreal
Gas Authority India Ltd. (GAIL), New Delhi, is planning to build an UCG-IGCC pilot power plant in Barmer, Rajasthan that will gasify lignite in-situ. The state government has earmarked two locations for GAIL to conduct pre-feasibility studies. GAIL and Ergo Exergy will implement a pilot project that is expected to take 12 months before syngas production begins. A 5.0-MW plant will be scaled up to 750 MW if the pilot project is successful. The cost per Btu of the syngas would be much less that the natural gas price. Ergo Exergy is also negotiating two other Indian UCG projects with Reliance Industries Ltd. and Electra Steel. Ergo has completed a study with a New Zealand coal company in that country and license arrangements negotiations are under way. US state governments, especially in Wyoming, are very supportive of developing UCG projects for their ample coal reserves and eagerly considering the technology that is also being considered by chemical companies and for use in US IGCC power plants. Other UCG projects include producing synthetic natural gas or Fischer-Tropsch fuels.

Canadian UCG - IGCC Base Power Projects
Simon Maev, VP business development, Laurus Energy Inc.
The Laurus Energy president will discuss how the company and Ergo Exergy will use UCG-generated syngas from coal deposits in the immediate vicinity to feed two coal-fired Nova Scotia power plants that can be co-fired with imported coal and petroleum coke to significantly reduce SOx emissions and provide large fuel-cost savings. UCG produces combustible gases from the in-situ oxidation of coal, eliminating the cost and impacts of mining. The produced syngas is suitable for power generation in a combined cycle turbine or to reformulate liquid hydrocarbons as clean diesel. UCG has the environmental advantages of minimal surface disturbance, increased worker safety, no surface disposal of coal ash, and the potential to recover and sequester CO2. UCG has the commercial benefits of low capital and operating costs, low-cost electricity and liquid hydrocarbons, and an almost unlimited coal supply with no exploration or delineation costs.

Powder River Basin UCG Project
Steve Morzenti, GasTech, Inc.
GasTech Inc., Casper, WY, is pursuing the economic development of vast deep coals in the Power River Basin (PRB), Wyoming, by utilizing UCG. The PRB is an energy-rich basin with uranium, oil and gas, coal, coal bed methane, and now UCG production. There is an estimated 510 billion tons of sub-bituminous coal in the PRB in Wyoming, in extremely thick seams, up to 200 ft thick. The total deep coal resource in the PRB has the energy content of 20 years of current world energy consumption. However, 95% of the coal resource is at depths between 500 ft and 2,000 ft below the surface. These are the PRB "deep coals," too deep for conventional mining, but ideal for development by UCG. The company has secured coal leases over more than 125 sq miles in the PRB where the coal is deeper than 500 ft and thicker than 100 ft. The total reserves on these leases exceed 13 billon tons of coal in-place. The leased coal resource has the energy content of 36 billion bbl of oil. GasTech's lease position provides the ideal geologic setting for the development and commercialization of UCG. The firm has begun a PRB/UCG viability analysis that is funded in part by the Wyoming Business Council. GasTech is seeking equity partners to develop the UCG demonstration project and downstream commercial projects.

BREAK

Combustion Simulation and CO2 Capture
Ravi Upadhye, chemical engineer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a technology that converts coal in-situ into a high-pressure syngas stream. That syngas may be used to generate IGCC electricity, or to produce synthetic natural gas, liquid fuels, and hydrogen. The raw UCG gas, with substantial CO2 fraction, comes to the surface at high pressure. The high pressure allows for low-cost partial CO2 separation from the syngas, and reduces the energy penalty related to full decarbonization in H2 production. As a result, UCG can produce a partially or fully decarbonized gas stream at costs below conventional gasification and often below the cost of coal mining. The concentrated CO2 stream is suitable for CO2 storage underground, including as an injectate for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Strata suitable for UCG almost always contain relevant targets for carbon storage, which include adjacent or subjacent saline aquifers, oil and gas fields, and coal seams. A portion of the CO2 may be stored in the cavity produced by in-situ gasification; however, uncertainties in this process require scientific investigation. All US coal basins, including lignite belts, PRB, and sub-bituminous accumulations, have viable nearby targets, which may be ranked and managed for extremely low risks, high confidence in successful carbon storage, and high economic chance of success.

South Africa's Majuba Power Station UCG Project
Dr. Mark Van der Riet, corporate consultant, Eskom Holdings Limited, South Africa
Eskom has developed a 15,000-cu.-m/hr UCG pilot plant to prove the viability of producing syngas at its Majuba colliery and to prove the co-firing with coal at Majuba power station. This has proven to be a perfect place to use UCG because the huge 50-million-ton mine with sub-bituminous coal cannot be mined conventionally due to the continuous equipment damage when encountering the hard dolerite intrusions. This 4,200-MW power station with six 700-MW blocks and UCG will supply 30% or 1,200 MW of the power generated. The pilot plant provides an initial generating capacity of about 6.0 MW that is sufficient to co-fire a single burner at the station. Pending the success of the pilot program, gas production will be scaled up with a potential of eventually providing 30% of the primary energy requirements. The benefit of an indigenous gas source would be for usage in high efficiency gas turbines, either in simple or combined-cycle mode. Eskom has initiated this next phase of UCG research to derive performance estimates, generation costs and environmental benefits of these options.