Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is carried out in unmined coal seams, using wells drilled from the surface and converting coal into synthesis gas. The gas can be used for power generation and synthesis of automotive fuels, fertilizers and other products. UCG offers financial, social, and environmental benefits over conventional coal extraction and utilization methods and may play a critical role in ensuring energy security in the future. Underground Coal Gasification and Combustion provides an overview of underground coal gasification technology, its current status and future directions. Comprehensive in approach, the book covers history, science, technology, hydrogeology, rock mechanics, environmental performance, economics, regulatory and commercial aspects of UCG projects. The first book on the subject in forty years, it is unique in analysing more than a century of global UCG developments by experts from Australia, Canada, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, the USA and Uzbekistan. - Provides researchers, engineers, industry, educators and regulators with an authoritative overview of science and practical applications of underground coal gasification technologies - Offers insight into efficiency, environmental performance, costs, permitting issues and commercial aspects of UCG projects - Written by scientists and practitioners of UCG technology sharing hands-on experience of step-by-step UCG implementation

Providing a comprehensive survey of the origin, the fundamental properties, and the technology of utilization of the lignites of North America, this book will be of particular interest to professional scientists and engineers working in coal research or coal technology. Coals display a continuum of properties, often with no sharp, steep change between ranks and thus the book restricts the discussion strictly to lignites (with the occasional comparisons with other coals).There is a very extensive index, making the contents of the book easily accessible to the reader.

The American love affair with the automobile is powered by gasoline and diesel fuel, both produced from petroleum. But experts are turning more of their attention to alternative sources of liquid transportation fuels, as concerns mount about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, falling domestic oil production, and the environment. This book explores the potential for producing liquid transportation fuels by enhanced oil recovery from existing reservoirs, and processing resources such as coal, oil shale, tar sands, natural gas, and other promising approaches. Fuels to Drive Our Future draws together relevant geological, technical, economic, and environmental factors and recommends specific directions for U.S. research and development efforts on alternative fuel sources. Of special interest is the book's benchmark cost analysis comparing several major alternative fuel production processes. This volume will be of special interest to executives and engineers in the automotive and fuel industries, policymakers, environmental and alternative fuel specialists, energy economists, and researchers.