OEF Rapid Review Articles
Coal is cheap but the challenge is how to harness coal as clean energy. A number of countries are looking at different ways to exploit their abundant coal reserves. Not all of them, however, are motivated by environmental concerns, but are driven instead by economics and a desire for energy independence. The main technology being used is coal gasification where the coal is chemically transformed into synthetic natural gas, but its overall carbon intensity is worse than coal mining, so it is not attractive at all from a climate change point of view. Other methods are the coal-bed methane process and that of underground coal gasification. Very little CO2 is emitted with the coal bed methane process, but the process is not without controversy. Underground coal gasification, however, is both a new way of harnessing the energy of coal without the usual environmental impacts and a feasible way of accessing the vast resources of coal that are too deep to mine – important considerations that could lead to the opening up of the 85% of the world’s coal resources that cannot be accessed through traditional mining techniques.
LINK TO THE SOURCE ARTICLE:
Coal gasification: The clean energy of the future?
LINK TO THE SOURCE ARTICLE:
Coal gasification: The clean energy of the future?