Coal gasification has been a technology that has come and gone in many different manners through out history. Coal gas was used to light cities from New York to San Francisco during the Victorian era. Modern day Atlanta’s power company is still called the Atlanta Gas Light Company. Coal was heated to a temperature significant enough to give off enough natural gas to light the city. The gas was captured then compressed and piped to gas lights in the lighted sections of the city. During this time the technology was crude. The process produced a tarry by-product we call “coal tar”. Huge waste pits are located in and around the city and other Georgia cities, such as Savannah and Athens. The process was simple, but effective. Gasification has been in commercial use for more than fifty years as a process technology for the refining, chemical, and power industries.

In 1999 the first World Gasification Survey was conducted by the firm of SFA Pacific, Inc. with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, and in cooperation with the member companies of the Gasification Technologies Council. The survey identified and gathered information on 160 commercial gasification plants in operation, under construction, or in planning and design stages in twenty-eight countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

The total daily capacity of these facilities when in operation will be close to 430 million normal cubic meters of synthesis gas (syngas). This is the energy equivalent of more than 770,000 barrels of oil per day. [Note: one million normal cubic meters of syngas is the equivalent of 37.3 million standard cubic feet, or 10.4 billion Btu’s.]

Our ultra high temperature plasma-arc technology (1650º C or 3002 º F) has the capability to produce synthetic natural gas (SNG) in an oxygen starved atmosphere. This technology has been thoroughly tested and is now in production in many locations as a primary source of energy for electricity generation, a reliable method of vitrifying the toxic constituents in contaminated soils and high sulfur fossil fuel feed stocks, i.e. High sulfur crude oils, coal, slaughterhouse by-products, ranching and farm waste and many other waste oils. The US government has studied this technology and has shown through millions of dollars of research and pilot studies that not only is the process effective, but also very economical in many respects. Several government websites show the United States Initiatives for 2005 thru 2015 to mitigate the fossil fuel demand by diversification;

Taking a few minutes to review these sites will empower the forward-thinking individual with the knowledge of what direction the industry is moving with regard to this technology. Corporate America is investing heavily in, soon there will be no room for the entrepreneurial external individual or organization that is not an integral part of the “oil business” to advantage themselves in this unique commodity.

The Domenici-Barton Energy Policy Act of 2005, the new Federal Energy bill makes coal gasification a key part of the national energy plans. The bill provides $1.8 billion for a nine-year Clean Coal Power Initiative, including research toward burning coal more cleanly to achieve the goal of reducing emission levels comparable with those of natural gas. It also includes monies for technologies to transform coal into a liquid and the storage carbon dioxide emissions underground. At least 70% of the initiative funding will be aimed at coal gasification while 30% will be used for advanced pulverized coal technologies.