Project Ramsay: Potential for Underground Coal Gasification with Carbon Capture and Storage (UCG-CCS) in North East England,UK. (354-386)

摘要

North East England is historically an energy intensive region due to its proud industrial heritage and leading position in manufacturing, engineering and chemical processing industries. In the coming years, our world will continue to face economic, environmental and energy related challenges. In the short and medium term, increases in global demand for energy are unlikely to be satisfied in full by the emergence of renewable energy technologies, whiclr presently supply only a small fraction of our energy budget. This paper makes a case for clean use of coal in response to the needs of our society and the world to meet energy security needs in the new global low-carbon economy. Although, a transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources should be the long-term goal, fossil fuels still form the backbone of our energy infrastructure, their use is inevitable, and they will still be supplying the major part of the global energy needs for most of the 21~(st) century. The emerging Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) technologies provide exciting opportunities to unlock the energy stored in coal seams in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner when they are linked to carbon capture and storage (CCS). The syngas (or synthesis gas) produced from UCG is a flexible fuel which can be cleaned for use in industrial heating, power generation or further chemical conversion into energy carriers like hydrogen, methanol and substitute natural gas. Project Ramsay is seeking to create the world's first commercial scale underground coal gasification and carbon capture storage (UCG-CCS) operation. This paper presents our feasibility study and the initial findings on assessing the suitability of coal seams in North East England for UCG linked to Carbon Captive and Storage. The broad conclusions from the feasibility study are that: previous estimates for UCG-compatible coal had been conservative; there are coal seams that appear to be usable for CO_2 storage following UCG; and some of the end uses for syngas are potentially attractive. The most attractive options in financial terms are (1) to sell syngas, take back captured CO_2 and store it for a fee, and (2) to sell decarbonised hydrogen and methane. It was concluded that a project could be done in phases, ramping up the scale over time in order to minimise technical risk and investor exposure. Such a project could deliver a positive return on investment, albeit on a longer timescale than more conventional energy projects.