‘No place in Scotland’s energy mix’ for underground coal gasification

The Scottish government has said it will not support underground coal gasification developments as the extraction technique has “no place in Scotland’s energy mix”.

The announcement was made in response to the publication of an independent review commissioned by the government, which concluded that it would make sense to “progress towards a ban”.

The study said the process is somewhat unproven, with “few longer term operations at scale”, and that the industry has a history of “incidents of pollution and losses of containment”. It warned that the use of the technique in Scotland would make it more difficult for the country to meet its emissions targets unless it is used in combination with carbon capture and storage.

Report author and professor at the University of Glasgow Campbell Gemmell said: “Should industry wish to progress this technology at scale here or overseas at some future date, several key factors would need to be addressed, including managing the potential impact of the greenhouse gases produced.

“The onus would also clearly be with the industry to demonstrate and provide evidence that it can operate to the high environmental standards that the government and public should expect.”

The Scottish government enacted a moratorium on underground coal gasification (UCG) in October last year to give it time to gather evidence on the practice. Scottish energy minister Paul Wheelhouse has now written to the UK government asking it to revoke existing licenses for its use in Scotland and issue no new ones.   

“Having considered the report in detail, it is the Scottish Government’s view that UCG poses numerous and serious environmental risks and, on that basis, the Scottish Government cannot support this technology, said Wheelhouse. “Accordingly, UCG will have no place in Scotland’s energy mix at this time.”

Underground coal gasification involves pumping steam and oxygen into a coal seam through a borehole to ignite a controlled burn and thereby produce synthetic gas (or syngas for short). The gas and the by-products of the reaction are then siphoned off through a second borehole. The process is typically used on coal seams which cannot be accessed using traditional mining methods, usually because they are too deep. 

Yesterday communities secretary Sajid Javid upheld an appeal against the decision of Lancashire County Council to refuse permission for Cuadrilla to use hydraulic fracturing at a site in the county.