Prospects for underground coal gasification in Alberta, Canada

Abstract

Coal-bearing formations underlie approximately 303 000 km2 of Alberta. Coal seams can be traced in the subsurface, in hundreds of thousands of boreholes, over tens of kilometres and coal zones over hundreds of kilometres. Alberta has 2000 Gt of coal resource containing more than three times the energy content of Alberta’s oil sands (in-place bitumen resources at 1·8 trillion barrels); however, much of the coal is too deep or too costly to mine and it appeared that most of this vast resource would never be exploited. Underground coal gasification (UCG) linked to various carbon dioxide capture and geological storage technologies offers a way that Alberta’s coal resources can be utilised in a ‘carbon constrained’ world. With coal having been gasified at depths up to 1400 m, in an Albertan UCG pilot project, the huge coal endowment can be recognised as a potential answer for North America’s energy demand.