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U.S. Department of Energy
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LLL in situ coal gasification program. Quarterly progress report, January--March 1976

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7350192

The Hoe Creek site was winterized following the explosive fracturing and preliminary permeability and air-flow testing conducted last quarter. Plans have been made for additional field permeability, dewatering, and air flow tests. These tests will be followed by gasification between the existing injection well and a new production well, which will be placed within the explosively stimulated zone. Ground-water monitoring will permit us to assess the extent of migration of water-soluble contaminants from the gasification zone. We are now examining calculations of tensile failure resulting from explosive fracturing of coal to explore possible correlations of calculated tensile strain and experimentally measured permeability. Simple gasification models based upon thermodynamics are described. The thermodynamic assumptions make the models quite useful although they may limit their validity. A high-pressure (75 psia) combustion-tube run during the past quarter demonstrated smooth gasification in a packed bed at about 0.5 ft/h. The product gas had a heating value of 300 Btu/scf. Laboratory electrical conductivity measurements of coal and coal chars showed that there are both prospects and problems in using this technique as a diagnostic tool for underground coal gasification. (auth)

Research Organization:
California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
OSTI ID:
7350192
Report Number(s):
UCRL-50026-76-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English