AUSTRALIA— Linc Energy Chief Executive Peter Bond is flying 4,300 km across Australia in a coal-fueled plane to garner publicity for his company’s Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) process. UCG involves heating under- ground coal reserves in situ to a temperature of more than 1,000°C, then converting the resulting gas into diesel and jet fuel using standard gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology. The process is said to extract 22 times more energy from coal than coalseam gas (CSG) mining which merely siphons off the methane associated with coal deposits, leaving the coal in place and risking groundwater contamination. Bond believes he can make jet A-1 for just $30/bbl versus import costs of $110- $120/bbl. Speaking to reporters, Bond said Linc had a memo- randum of agreement with BP to buy output from its still-to-be- approved Southern Australia plant. Bond thinks Linc could pro- duce 250,000 liters per year within two years. The CJ2 Citation test flight is fueled 50-50 with conventional jet A-1 and UCG- derived GTL jet fuel from Linc’s Chinchilla test plant. “There’s nothing like being in the front seat of a jet at 40,000 feet to show you have total faith in the product,” he told reporters. Bond made a similar journey by car last year fueled by UCG diesel.
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