Carbon Energy - Bloodwood Creek
Brisbane, Mar 24, 2009 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Carbon Energy Limited (ASX:CNX)(PINK:CNXAF) today announced results from its recent A$20m Bloodwood Creek Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) commercial trial. The 100 day trial completed at the end of January 2009 successfully demonstrated the Company's capability to convert in-situ coal into significant quantities of UCG syngas (energy). Importantly, a large proportion of the energy produced (68%) is in the form of methane and ethane, the key components required in the production of synthetic natural gas.
Carbon Energy's Managing Director, Andrew Dash said "We are extremely happy with these results as they exceeded our expectations. Confirmation of the gas composition results, and linking this to the recent resources upgrades, demonstrates that Carbon Energy now has the potential to become a major contributor to Queensland`s growing energy industry and a possible new entrant into the developing LNG industry and domestic gas industries."
Recapping on Carbon Energy`s last announcement, Mr Dash commented that, "Our recent resource upgrade identified that of our 668 million tonnes of inferred and indicated coal resource, 364 million tonnes were in coal seams greater than 5 m thick, similar to those gasified during our trial. By extrapolating our results to date we predict that:
- 364 million tonnes is equivalent to 7,320 PJ of in-situ energy,
- By applying Carbon Energy's UCG syngas technology we can recover in excess of 4,245 PJ of energy as syngas,
- Approximately 2,890 PJ (68%) will be in the form of the key components of synthetic natural gas (methane and ethane).
Consequently, the magnitude of our energy resource gives us the potential to be a major contributor to Australia's East Coast energy supply. By way of example, the energy we can recover, just from coal seams in excess of 5 metres is approximately equivalent to:
- 50% of Queensland's current electricity demand for over 15 years, or,
- Brisbane's entire current natural gas demand for over 60 years".
Analysis of the coal quality testing and final data from the oxygen and steam UCG test at Bloodwood Creek has produced the following results:
- The average in-situ energy on an air dried basis is 20.11 GJ/tonne of coal.
- The key energy components in the gas are:
- Methane & Ethane (components of natural gas): 68%
- Hydrogen & Carbon Monoxide: 32%
Table 1 Average Gas Energy Contribution
-------------------------Gas Energy(%)-------------------------Methane 58Ethane 10Carbon Monoxide 6Hydrogen 26-------------------------
This table does not include carbon dioxide or other inert gases that are present in the gas stream but do not contribute any energy content.
The addition of the resource contained in the seams from 2 metres to 5 metres (an additional 304 million tonnes), has the potential to add significantly to the energy recovery potential.
Carbon Energy is currently undergoing a third party certification process to independently verify these gas production numbers.
Carbon Energy's Managing Director, Andrew Dash commented that "In-line with our stated commercialisation strategy, we are currently in discussion with potential partners and customers, both in Queensland and nationally, regarding power generation and synthetic natural gas production projects."
About Carbon Energy Limited
Carbon Energy (ASX:CNX) (OTCMKTS:CNXAY) is building a gas business, utilising its unique keyseam technology.
The Company is committed to providing industrial gas users with an affordable and secure source of high quality feedstock, as gas prices remain strong, through increased demand across our key markets.
Carbon Energy is the only company to complete a full-lifecycle, commercial scalable underground gasification trial. The Company's keyseam technology has successfully accomplished all the recommendations outlined by the Queensland government's Independent Scientific Panel (ISP) which included intense, independent environmental scrutiny.
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