Optimizing Coal Potential, Indian Govt Eyes Tekmira’s Technology

MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES

REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

PRESS RELEASE

NUMBER: 272.Pers/04/SJI/2020

Date: 5 September 2020

Optimizing Coal Potential, Indian Govt Eyes Tekmira's Technology

The Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) technology currently being developed by BLU Puslitbang tekMIRA (Public Service Agency, Center for Research and Development of Mineral and Coal Technologies) of Ministry of EMR has attracted interest from a number of parties, the Indian Ministry of Coal among others.

"Peeyush Kumar, Technology Director of Indian Ministry of Coal, has asked for Tekmira's collaboration to supervise the development and trials of UCG at two locations in West Bengal and Rahigajt areas," as quoted from Tekmira's official Instagram account @blu.tekmira on Saturday (5/9).

The implementation of UCG technology is expected to contribute to increased energy supply, natural resources conservation, and reduced energy costs.

This technology is considered suitable for application in Indonesia and India, especially because both countries have a similarity in the proportion of fossil energy reserves: both countries have far larger coal reserves than those of oil and gas.

To follow up the cooperation, tekMIRA will evaluate and prepare the UCG development phases after its counterpart sends the geological data on the UCG location plan.

The gasification process in the UCG technology is carried out using two drilling wells. One well functions as a media to inject air/oxygen, while the other functions as a production well. This technology can reduce environmental issues, optimize the use of formerly uneconomical coal, and most likely reduce shortages of energy supplies that come from oil and gas.

In detail, the technology will extract and convert underground coal into synthetic gas (syngas) in situ. This unconventional technology does not need the overburden and coal seams to be removed first.

Besides used to fuel power plants, the syngas produced by this unconventional technology can also be used for a number of purposes, such as raw material for the petrochemical industry (ammonia, methanol, etc.) and production of synthetic oil/gas fuels as well as industrial chemicals. UCG can also produce carbon dioxide (CO2) that serves as a material for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) to increase national oil production. The costs of producing UCG syngas are lower than those of importing LNG.

The UCG technology helps coal companies make use of deep coal seams, which were not economically recoverable. It needs much lower capital and operational costs than if gasification is carried out on the surface. Coal companies can also reduce environmental impacts as well as reclamation and post-mining costs because UCG does not change the landscape.

Puslitbang tekMIRA carried out trials in South Sumatra and, in 2019, pre-feasibility study in East Kalimantan on the implementation of UCG technology. The study focused on the aspects of geology, hydrology, hydrogeology, geotechnics, and economies of scale as well as total amounts of the coal reserves. The study continues this year with the construction of eight groundwater monitoring wells. The first commercial UCG facility in Indonesia is expected to be operational in 2023. (IY)

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