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Transcendence

Underground coal gasification is an in-situ process that involves drilling wells into deep, unminable coal seams, igniting the coal underground, and bringing the resulting syngas to the surface. The authors argue that UCG could be a promising unconventional energy source for India given its large coal reserves and increasing energy demands. UCG produces syngas from coal seams too deep to mine, offering energy security while reducing environmental impacts compared to traditional mining. The syngas can be used to generate electricity, produce natural gas or liquid fuels, and carbon dioxide can be captured and stored underground. UCG could help India utilize unminable coal to boost its economy in a more sustainable way.

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Arsh Attri
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17 views

Transcendence

Underground coal gasification is an in-situ process that involves drilling wells into deep, unminable coal seams, igniting the coal underground, and bringing the resulting syngas to the surface. The authors argue that UCG could be a promising unconventional energy source for India given its large coal reserves and increasing energy demands. UCG produces syngas from coal seams too deep to mine, offering energy security while reducing environmental impacts compared to traditional mining. The syngas can be used to generate electricity, produce natural gas or liquid fuels, and carbon dioxide can be captured and stored underground. UCG could help India utilize unminable coal to boost its economy in a more sustainable way.

Uploaded by

Arsh Attri
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Title: ‘Underground Coal Gasification: An Unconventional Prospect for India’

Authors - Arsh Attri, Aniket Jain


B.Tech Applied Petroleum Engineering - Upstream (2017-2021)
University of Petroleum & Energy Studies

Energy consumption is  set to  achieve record heights specially in a country like India.  Given
the  country’s  over  dependence on coal and imports of millions of barrels of crude oil, there is an
overburden  on its economy  and  environment  as well.  This motivates us to take inspiration
from  countries  worldwide, and develop a scope for unconventional energy sources. One such
p r o m i s i n g  u n c o n v e n t i o n a l  s o u r c e  o f e n e r g y,  t h a t i s d e s c r i b e d i n t h i s p a p e r i s
“Underground  Coal  Gasification(UCG)”. UCG is an in-situ gasification process carried out in deep
non-mined coal seams using injection of oxidants (generally Oxygen), and bringing the product gas to
the surface from wells drilled through the surface. The predominant product gases
are hydrogen, methane, carbon-di-oxide and higher hydrocarbons which are a source of Energy. The
basic process sequentially involves drilling injection and production wells at depths greater than
700  metre where  un-minable  coal is present. After this the boreholes are connected, in-situ  coal
is  ignited, oxygen and steam are injected and the syngas is obtained as the product, which is
recovered from the production well. This syngas, is of very much importance due to
its various applications, such as, syngas can be used to generate electricity, it could be converted to
natural gas, or it can be converted to liquid fuels. The positive outcomes of UCG are quite impressive
and convincing, and the fact that energy is derived from coal which would be otherwise of no use,
makes UCG stand at par with other unconventional energy sources.  The carbon dioxide which is a
constituent of the syngas, can be separated from the mixture and could be buried in the subsurface
using the carbon capture and storage(CCS) technique. UCG has smaller environmental footprint, no
ash production at surface, more power output, effective use of  un-minable  coal  and security of
national supply as well. Thus, UCG can be seen as a promising unconventional energy source, which
could boost a country’s economy, especially India’s, which has gigantic coal reserves.

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