Friday, October 21, 2011

Good morning,

I recently read yet another story about the huge deposits of oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. This story gets trotted out every so often by domestic oil production advocates despite the fact that there is no efficient, economical way to liquefy and extract the solid shale.

A 2005 study by the RAND Corporation estimates it would require a 1200-megawatt power plant just to unlock just 100,000 barrels of shale oil a day (less than 1 percent of our total oil demand). Large enough to serve half a million people, the power plant alone would burn 5 million tons of coal each year and release 10 million tons of global warming pollution.

So oil shale is just not an option, but as worries about oil supplies continue to grow alternatives must be explored. How about, instead of burning 5 million tons of coal each year in order to process oil shale, the coal itself is turned into valuable fuel?

Scroll down to read about a Soviet-developed process to do just that which is being pursued in Australia.

Thanks for reading,

Your Living Green editor

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Underground coal gasification (UCG) involves burning deep unmineable coals on site at a temperature of 1,200 degrees Celsius. Gas produced by the burn can then be converted into synthetic fuels such as diesel.

Peter Bond, whose company has been piloting the UCG process at its $70 million demonstration plant in Australia, says oil can be produced for $30 a barrel.

There are still environmental issues. Dangerous chemical compounds produced during the process that, since it takes place underground, could contaminate the groundwater. However, underground coal gasification could be another stopgap measure between the threat of peak oil and a truly renewable energy paradigm for coal rich countries like the United States.