Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership - South Africa » methane http://www.cpsl.co.za Inspiring Sustainability Leadership, Learning and Change Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:45:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Fuel from Coal-Eating Microbes http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/03/fuel-from-coal-eating-microbes/ http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/03/fuel-from-coal-eating-microbes/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:57:17 +0000 Dirk Visser http://www.cpsl.co.za/?p=390 Luca Technologies, a start-up based in Colorado, USA, has raised $76 million to scale up a process that uses coal-digesting microorganisms to convert coal into methane. The process is designed to operate underground, inside coal beds. Methane, the key component of natural gas, can then be pumped out and used to generate electricity or power vehicles.

If the process proves economical, it could help reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, since burning natural gas releases half as much carbon dioxide as does burning coal.

As little as one-hundredth of 1 percent of the coal in the United States converted into methane by microbes would supply the country’s current annual natural-gas demands, says Andrew Scott, a former professor of economic geology at the University of Texas at Austin. Scott is the founder of Altuda Energy Corporation, based in San Antonio, TX, which is developing a similar process.

Original article: Kevin Bullis. Technology Review. 8 January 2009. Read more…

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