Energy company close to producing first UCG power
By Paul OsborneMon Nov 16 14:09:53 EST 2009
Mon Nov 16 03:09:53 UTC 2009
BRISBANE, Nov 16 AAP - Energy company Carbon Energy will this week move a step closer to producing its first electricity from coal without having to dig it up.
Carbon Energy is developing a 5MW power station at Bloodwood Creek in Queensland's Surat Basin using underground coal gasification (UCG) technology.
UCG is the process of extracting coal from the ground through its transformation into a combustible gas for power generation.
The technology avoids the need to dig up coal, produces fewer emissions and has a much smaller footprint than a conventional coal-fired power station.
Chief executive Andrew Dash told AAP on Monday the engines for the power station - acquired from a Victorian decommissioned plant - were being installed now and would be commissioned in December.
Mr Dash said the first electricity was expected to be produced in January with the first revenues anticipated in the first quarter of 2010.
"It will go into Ergon distribution system, feeding homes and industry in the Dalby and Kogan areas," Mr Dash said.
"It's a very important milestone. We've gone from October last year building a world-first project to demonstrate our technology and approximately 12 months later generating our first revenue.
"It has been very rapid commmercialisation of the technology."
Front-end engineering and design work is under way for a 20MW station, to which the company hopes to commit in the first quarter of 2010.
The next phase will use imported technology as well as carbon capture and storage technology being developed by ZeroGen.
"It will be one of the first demonstration projects in Australia for low-emission coal generation," Mr Dash said.
He said the beauty of the technology was that it was scalable, allowing the plant to move to 150MW or 300MW over time.
Mr Dash said the initial aim was to service the domestic market, but in the long-term there was potential to export the technology to markets with coal resources that were too deep for conventional mining, such as the United States and Europe.
Carbon Energy will hold its AGM in Brisbane this Friday.
