Because UCG is both ideally suited to deep, inaccessible coal, which is uneconomic to mine traditionally, and “operates at up to 80-85 percent efficiency — the amount of the syngas recovered at the surface is about 80-85 percent of the original heating value of the coal feedstock” (recent UCG Association presentation), its potential as a cheap source of energy is significant.

According to the UCG Association: “Applying UCG technology to stranded, low grade, coal seams vastly increases the amount of exploitable global reserves,” with estimates suggesting that UCG could increase recoverable coal reserves in the U.S. alone by 300-400 percent.


Potential also exists in such emerging markets as China, India and South Africa. With, of course, the added advantages that: 1) plant costs are low (everything takes place underground); and, 2) there are no transport costs – the coal isn’t taken anywhere.