New hope for coal future as new mining method announced

Dec 10 2009 by Amy Hunt, The Journal

They have also been looking at ways of using the voids created when coal is removed to store carbon dioxide, in a process called carbon capture and storage (CCS), which could cut the effects of global warming.

Prof Paul Younger of Newcastle University, said: “My view is that sooner or later we’re going to be doing this on a huge scale. I welcome this news and wish them every success, hopefully it will be a harbinger of things to come. But no one should expect to see things developing in months.

“There are awkward questions to answer if this is to work. For example there is a feasibility question about the gasification of coking coal, which is what is in the seams in the area – no one really knows how it will behave.

“At this university we’re only interested in doing this if it’s linked to CCS.

“In our economic model we can’t get underground coal gasification to stack up, but with CCS it does.”