GASIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES An Experimental Study on Underground Coal Gasification of Soma Basin Coals

The energy demand that emerged with the industrial revolution was first met with coal. In the last century, beside of coal, oil and natural gas have come to the fore in meeting this huge energy demand. Underground coal gasification (UCG) provides utilization of unmined coal seams due to various technical limitations. Production of syngas by in situ gasification of coal with production wells can be done and utilized as an energy source. This laboratory study was performed in order to understand the physical and chemical properties of the underground coal gasification process by simulating certain aspects. Soma coals from Western Turkey is used in an experiment. In this experiment in which oxygen-enriched air (40% O₂) was injected into the experimental setup designed to have near zero heat losses. H₂S filter was used to reduce/block H₂S production during the experiment. This experiment were carried out by adapting the methods used for in situ combustion analysis of oil fields. It is aimed to determine the content of syngas released during gasification. Thermocouples used to monitor process were placed outside the reactor due to potential temperature limits and corrosive gas composition. Resultingly, the internal reactor temperature is indirectly observed. The experiment lasted approximately 8 hours, yielding a syngas with an HHV of 5.871 MJ/Nm³, determined from GC results during the stable period.