Coal gasification is gathering steam

IT IS a technology first developed in the 19th century and encouraged under Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. Now a few Australian companies are attempting to prove that underground coal gasification (UCG) is more than just a promising idea but a technological and financial reality.

Len Walker’s Cougar Energy is one of those companies. It is preparing to develop a demonstration plant in Kingaroy in Queensland with a pilot burn and initial construction expected later this year. If successful, it will be ramped up to a 400-megawatt plant powered by UCG and feeding back into the electricity grid by 2013.

TheAge