Coal Minister Prasad Joshi on Wednesday told Parliament that underground coal gamification technology is not proven environmentally sustainable and commercially across the world, and it is not under consideration for adoption in India. Underground Coal Gamification is not a proven environmentally sustainable technology. Resultantly, Underground Coal Gamification (CUG) technology is not proven commercially across the world.
The pilot project in Australia was dropped due to economic and environmental concerns. “As such, CUG is not under consideration for adoption in India,” the minister said in a written reply to the Look Sasha. Gamification of coal is a process in which coal is partially oxidized by air, oxygen, steam or carbon dioxide under controlled conditions to produce a fuel gas.
The government has prepared a plan to achieve coal gamification and liquefaction of 100 million tonnes (MT) of coal by 2030, Joshi said in the written reply. Finance Minister Narmada Sitharaman in her budget speech 2022-23 announced setting up of four pilot projects for coal gamification. Joshi on Tuesday said that four projects for conversion of coal to clean energy with private sector capital investment of Rs 30,130 crore will help in achieving the target of 100 MT coal gamification by 2030.
In the last few years there has been significant renewed interest in CUG as the technology has moved forward considerably. China has about 30 projects in different phases of preparation that use underground coal gamification. India plans to use underground gamification to access an estimated 350 billion tonnes of coal. In 2007 India compiled a 93-page status report on underground coal gamification that highlighted interest from many of the country's biggest companies. Final power coming up with its plant in Odisha. South African companies Sisal and Eskimo both have CUG pilot facilities that have been operating for some time, giving valuable information and data. In Australia, Line Energy has the Chinchilla site, which first started operating in 2000. Carbon Energy has completed a successful 100-day commercial scale study in Blood wood Creek in 2008. Demonstration projects and studies are also currently under way in a number of countries, including the USA, Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Australia and China, with work being carried out by both industry and research establishments. A number of issues remain to be resolved before wider deployment can be achieved.
CUG may not require an external water source to operate, a major environmental advantage over water-intensive coal mining operations and pulverized-coal-fired energy production methods Lower emissions, because gamification in CUG is underground thereby reducing environmental management costs Particulates are generated at half the rate of their surface equivalents and stay underground Lower dust, noise, visual impact on the surface Low risk of surface water pollution Reduced methane emissions - coal seam gas is recovered in the process, rather than lost in the atmosphere as in most conventional mining No dirt handling and disposal at mine sites.
CUG uses a mined coal and performed in underground coal seams compared to conventional gamification It eliminates cost of coal mining & transport It does not require capital cost of the surface gamification reactor. CUG does not incur the cost of ash and slag removal, storage and disposal, all inert solids remain underground. CUG is usually produced at lower temperature, easier to process and clean up. Unlike CUG, conventional gamification requires coal mining with environmental and safety issues. Conventional gamification uses large volumes of water, whereas CUG uses groundwater present in the coal seam.
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