Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Vasilis SarhosisORCiD
This is the final published version of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by ICE Publishing, 2017.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Modern “enabling technologies” and over a century of research and development have pushed underground coal gasification (UCG) beyond the proof-of-concept phase. Lessons learned from previous trials have demonstrated that UCG can exploit energy stored in coal efficiently and with limited environmental impact compared with conventional coal-based energy technologies. Many countries in the EU (and world-wide) struggle to meet their energy needs despite containing very large reserves of coal, which cannot be exploited conventionally because of its depth. Application of modern UCG techniques, state-of-the-art drilling and monitoring technologies offer the opportunity to extract the energy from deep coal resources economically and with limited environmental impacts; however, several hurdles, such as public opinion and CO2 emission limits, must be overcome before UCG can commercialise in the EU. The EU has a long history of supporting UCG projects and has funded some of the most important research undertaken to date. Continued support by member states will attract more private investment, enable more field trials and allow Europe’s world-class UCG experts to demonstrate that the technology is ready to provide cleaner energy from coal for the EU in the 21st Century. This is a review paper which aims to summarise the lessons learned from UCG trials and EU-sponsored work, and to discuss what still needs to be done to commercialise UCG.
Author(s): Sarhosis V, Lavis S, Mostade M, Thomas HR
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environmental Geotechnics
Year: 2017
Volume: 4
Issue: 2
Pages: 113-122
Print publication date: 01/04/2017
Online publication date: 08/04/2016
Acceptance date: 15/03/2016
Date deposited: 18/02/2016
ISSN (electronic): 2051-803X
Publisher: ICE Publishing
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/jenge.15.00044
DOI: 10.1680/jenge.15.00044
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
