Key Tests Set for Underground Coal Gasification

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is about to undergo some crucial tests. Their successful conclusion would leave little doubt of the technique's technical feasibility and might even provide much needed economic impetus for some commercial ventures. The tests, tentatively scheduled for late August, will be conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) near Centralia, Wash., in a coal seam owned by Washington Irrigation & Development Co. Three tests will check out a new UCG method being developed by LLNL. Despite the on-again, off-again funding patterns in alternative (to oil and gas) fuel sources, UCG has managed to survive. Behind that survival is the dedication of a few believers and the irrefutable logic that it would be well to have a standby source of gas—both as competition to natural gas and as a well-developed technology—when natural gas reserves eventually become inadequate. The declining appeal of coal mining, the inherent danger of mining, the escalating cost of ...