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Cavity Models for Underground Coal Gasification

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Coal and Biomass Gasification

Part of the book series: Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ((ENENSU))

Abstract

Underground coal gasification is an in situ coal utilization technique that has immense potential as a future clean coal technology. UCG possesses a number of advantages including the ability to use deep and unmineable coals. The most important component of UCG is the underground “cavity”—which serves as a chemical reactor with rich interplay of kinetics and transport. Field and laboratory-scale experiments have revealed several interesting features of the UCG cavity. Modeling studies on the UCG cavity involve fundamental models and CFD simulations. In this chapter, we will discuss various experiments and models of UCG cavities, with a focus on the effects of reaction chemistry and thermomechanical spalling on cavity evolution.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my colleagues Prof. Sanjay Mahajani and Anuradda Ganesh for the several years of discussions on UCG that we have had. I would also like to express my gratitude to ONGC, IRS, Ahmedabad, and the several research scholars who have worked very hard on unraveling the myriad mysteries hidden in this rich topic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    Preeti Aghalayam

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  1. Preeti Aghalayam
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Correspondence to Preeti Aghalayam .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Santanu De

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Avinash Kumar Agarwal

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

    V. S. Moholkar

  4. Bio-Fuels Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Bhaskar Thallada

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Aghalayam, P. (2018). Cavity Models for Underground Coal Gasification. In: De, S., Agarwal, A., Moholkar, V., Thallada, B. (eds) Coal and Biomass Gasification. Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7335-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7335-9_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7334-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7335-9

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