Solid Energy Starts UCG Pilot Plant

Solid Energy has announced the commencement of  its $22 million Underground Coal Gasification Pilot Plant near Huntly in the Waikato, New Zealand. The plant is now producing synthetic gas from coal.

The company believes it is the first in the world to access energy from a single coal field using four different technologies: underground mining, opencast mining, coal seam gas (CSG) and underground coal gasification (UCG).

"Our Huntly UCG pilot plant is designed to give us the geological, process and environmental data we need for commercial UCG plant design", says Solid Energy Chief Executive Officer, Dr Don Elder. "The immediate focus of the pilot is to stabilise initial syngas output, before increasing production to planned levels.