Huntly Underground Coal Gasification Pilot Plant

This article is part of the collection of articles on coal projects in New Zealand, which has been developed in conjunction with Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA). See CANA's Twitter feed and Facebook page. For information on how to get involved in adding material to CoalSwarm see here.

This article is part of the CoalSwarm coverage of New Zealand and coal.
Sub-articles:
Proposed coal mines Existing coal mines Coal export terminals Existing coal fired power stations Coal companies and agencies Solid Energy Solid Energy coal mines Solid Energy coal processing plants Potential Solid Energy coal projects Bathurst Resources Bathurst Resources coal projects L&M Group L&M coal exploration projects L&M Energy Mokau South Resources Mokau South Resources coal exploration projects Directors of New Zealand coal companies Power companies and agencies Coal Activist Videos: New Zealand Coal transport accidents in New Zealand
Related articles:
Global use and production of coal International Information on Coal

In April 2012 Solid Energy commissioned its Huntly Underground Coal Gasification Pilot Plant.

Loading map...

{"type":"SATELLITE","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"400px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","visitedicon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"wmsoverlay":false,"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":14,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"markercluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","enablefullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":-37.52078,"lon":175.072491,"icon":""}]}

Background

Solid Energy CEO, Don Elder, stated that the company "has access to around 2 billion tonnes of coal in the Huntly Coal Field. Most is too deep to be economic using conventional mining. UCG can potentially allow us to access most of this, which represents 10 times the energy of the Maui gas field." In its 2011 annual report the company stated that in December 2010 it received resource consents to produce synthetic gas for electricity generation. "The UCG pilot will convert up to 30,000 tonnes of coal into syngas and operate for up to two years on private property within our existing Huntly West Coal Mining Licence area. It will provide process, technical and geological information, and verify modelled environmental effects. This information will be used to optimise the design of a commercial operation."

Project Details

Owner: Solid Energy
Location: near Rotongaro, New Zealand
Coordinates: -37.52078,175.072491 (approximate location)
Status: Pilot plant
Production capacity:
Type of coal:
Employees:
Main markets: test underground coal gasification plant producing syngas

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Resources

• New Zealand and coal
• New Zealand Mining Industry Association
• Solid Energy

External Resources

• Solid Energy, "Underground Coal Gasification Pilot Plant Project: Resource Consent Applications and Assessment of Environmental Effects", Solid Energy, February 2010.