Compact coal underground gasification (UCG) system development

Japan's major universities and the Underground Resources Innovation Network are collaborating to develop technologies that can be deployed locally to derive energy from the gasification of underground coal resources. In 2013 a network of Japanese research institutes, universities and commercial organisations, began collaborating to develop an environmentally friendly technique for accessing the country's stranded coal reserves. The Compact Coaxial UCG project is now in its fifth year and in the process of completing and evaluating a successful field trial in Mikasa City, Hokkaido region. The aim was to use advanced UCG techniques which were suited to Japan's faulted and sloping coal seams and which could be deployed across the country to provide regional cities with an affordable and low emissions energy supply. In the words of Dr Gota Deguchi of the NPO Underground Resources Innovation Network, Japan was seeking energy which was 'locally produced and locally consumed'.