Jul 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Christopher Bjorke The Bismarck Tribune, N.D.



The dream of the alchemist is to make something valuable from something worthless.

Billions of tons of coal considered worthless because its depth underground has made it inaccessible can be converted to low-cost, clean fuels with a process gaining traction around the world, and possibly in North Dakota in the future.

The technique, underground coal gasification, "turns lead into gold," according to Julio Friedmann, an expert on the process, also known as UCG.

"It could be the bridge to a low-carbon, energy-rich future," said Friedmann, a researcher in carbon management for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "I consider this to be the cleanest coal."

 The technique can be used on deep-underground coal seams that are shielded from groundwater. The process works by injecting oxygen and steam into a seam, sparking a chemical reaction that converts the coal into a gas that is collected through a boring injected into another part of the coal vein. The synthetic gas -- "syngas" -- that is produced can be used in electrical generation or processed into synthetic fuels and natural gas feedstocks.

"It's not a new technology, but it's one that is new to a lot of people," said Mike Fowler, who works on climate technology for the Clean Air Task Force, an environmental group in Boston. The process has been around for decades, but has not been used in North America until recently.

A few projects are under way in Wyoming, Alaska and Canada.

Aside from creating a use for out-of-reach coal, it avoids the negative byproducts of coal. Syngas is low in carbon dioxide and other emissions such as sulfur and nitrogen oxide that need to be controlled under pollution laws. The process and products can be economically competitive with natural gas and traditional coal. It does not entail the other environmental impacts of strip mining and reclamation and does not produce coal ash requiring disposal.

According to a white paper on UCG by the Fowler group, its cost per megawatt hour falls between natural gas-generated power and traditional coal-fired power, but captures 80 percent of carbon dioxide while the other energy sources capture none.

"Our syngas is substantially cleaner than natural gas," said Martin Lambert, head of a Swan Hills Synfuels, which operates a UCG demonstration project in Alberta and plans to complete a commercial operation in 2015.

Lambert said that the technology has benefited from technological improvements in oil drilling allowing more precise access to deeply buried reserves.

With abundant deep coal reserves in North Dakota, supporters of UCG would like it to be part of the energy mix here, and some companies have shown some interest pursuing the process.

One proponent of doing underground gasification in the state is the the largest private owner of coal reserves in the world, Great Northern Properties. The group is pursuing a conventional gasification pilot project with its South Heart Coal venture, and its head of gasification, Chuck Kerr, said he has been working with companies that are interested in underground gasification in North Dakota but he could not say who they were yet.

"In the past 10 years, technology has essentially made a quantum leap in terms of UCG," Kerr said. "It has not been commercially adapted yet, but it's imminent."

State geologist Ed Murphy said that there has been interest in UCG over the past five years, but no one has applied for a permit to do it yet.

"We certainly have coal at depth," Murphy said. "It would certainly be of interest."

Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer said that he was not familiar with the process and not sure if it would come under the authority of the PSC. With new technologies, policies and permitting processes are often transferred from one industry to another, Cramer said.

"Wind energy is an example," he said. "Our surface mining regulations would obviously be in play" in permitting a coal gasification project.

Brad Crabtree, who works on energy policy for the nonprofit Great Plains Institute, said that state legislators should create policy for UCG projects now so the state can be attractive to potential developers.

"If we start taking action now and start developing these opportunities ... there is no reason that we can't have a long-term sustainable future for lignite coal in North Dakota."

Crabtree is a candidate for Cramer's PSC seat in the November election.

According to Friedmann, UCG's ability to tap into out-of-reach coal seams could triple or quadruple the recoverable coal reserves in the country and use them in way that is cleaner than conventional coal power. Its economic viability depends on the price of natural gas, which is volatile, but he said effective demonstration projects can prove its feasibility.

"Everybody who's looked at UCG wants to be the first to second," he said.

Friedmann expects new projects to be announced this year, possibly including a project in North Dakota.

Kerr said that the state's lignite reserves make it a likely place for a UCG project as well as the way it has embraced coal and other energy sources.

"North Dakota gets it," said Kerr, who predicts UCG projects will soon take off in the United States.

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