LINC Energy has started up its fifth underground coal gasifier at its research and development facility in Chinchilla, Queensland.
According to Linc Energy, Gasifier 5 is the most technologically advanced Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) gasifier in operation in the world today.
It is the final phase for the company’s technology trials, with commercial implementation being the next step.
Gasifier 5 is designed to support the commercial roll out of Linc Energy’s Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), Gas to Liquids (GTL) and Clean Gas energy applications. It is the first first multi panel UCG gasifier operation in the western world, operating in tandem with the Gasifier 4 UCG panel.
It was producing gas within 60 minutes of ignition, the fastest commissioning of any UCG operation in the world.
Gasifier 5 is 132 metres deep and 820 metres long, making it the longest gasifier in the world and the longest designed by Linc Energy to date. Linc Energy’s aim is to average in excess of 1,000 metres in length for each gasifier in its commercial operations.
It is estimated Gasifier 5 will produce up to 480 gigajoules of energy during the two to three years life expectancy, and gasify 24,000 tonnes of coal depending on the level of oxygen enrichment. The estimated single cavity width is 16 metres within a coal seam height of 5.5 metres.
It is the most instrumented gasifier ever built, with more than 120 thermocouples and a hydrogeological monitoring network with instrumentation cabling of almost 30 kilometres.