Following concerns about South Africa’s insufficient electricity supply, project development company Africary has completed engineering work on its 50 MW Theunissen underground coal gasification (TUCG) project, in the Free State, which is in line with the Department of Energy’s coal baseload electricity production proposal.

“The TUCG project is just the first step in unlocking the energy potential of the Theunissen coalfield, as it will use only five-million tons of coal from the possible one-billion tons of coal at our disposal,” says Africary director Johan Brand.

The project is located in the districts of Theunissen and Bultfontein to the south-west of the Free State goldfields and is ideally situated to stabilise the electricity grid, states Brand, adding that it also has the added advantage of being close to the major 400 kV transmission lines taking power to the Northern Cape.

He mentions that the energy conversion process for the TUCG project consists of mining about 30 t/h of coal and gasifying it into syngas. The syngas is then scrubbed of unwanted contaminants during a gas-cleaning process and conditioned into a stable-quality clean fuel gas for consumption by gas engines designed specifically for syngas operation to produce more than 50 MW of baseload electricity for the grid.

“The highly efficient gas engines are syngas-rated and provide excellent emission levels and contain no particulate matter. They offer higher fuel efficiency than any boiler-to-steam system currently operated in South Africa. The gas engines can also be equipped with an advanced exhaust catalyst to reduce sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions,” Brand highlights.

He adds that Africary is a company focused on developing power generation from coal using environment-friendly clean coal technology such as undergound coal gasification (UCG).

Brand also points out that, as UCG is a mining method that extracts in situ coal reserves through a process that converts the coal into syngas, it produces 25% less carbon dioxide for each megawatt of electricity than a conventional boiler of the same output. As a result of using closed circuit cooling, the gas engines use 90% less water for each kilowatt, compared with a conventional coal-fired boiler system.

“UCG is an almost limitless technology that will provide South Africa with the fantastic incentive of new and abundant energy sources. The project will also yield a return on investment, as it is designed in such a manner that it will pay for itself and reward its investors.

“The success of this project has also led the way for Africary to design more UCG modules and extend the company’s portfolio to other value-added products, which will yield similar returns, other than electricity,” Brand highlights.

As a result, he mentions, Africary has, together with State-owned power utility Eskom, integrated energy and chemical company Sasol and diversified resources group Exxaro, formed the UCG Association of South Africa under the auspices of the Fossil Fuel Foundation.

“We hope to engage and work together with government, industry, academia and our societies to grow and promote understanding and support for the technology,” Brand points out.

Brand notes that the project has a short construction timeline of 20 months and can produce (initial) power as soon as 2016.