SIMULATION OF UNDERGROUND GASIFICATION OF THIN COAL SEAMS

Underground coal gasification is an attractive option to recover energ y from thin deep-lying coal seams. By injecting air into the coal laye r, combustible gases are formed underground that can be used to produc e energy at the surface. The principal aim of this study was to unders tand and describe the transport processes that determine the behaviour of the gasification process. A number of simulation models are develo ped based on transport equations for mass, momentum, energy and chemic al species. The transport equations are discretized by using a finite- volume method. A two-dimensional version of Hottel's zone method has b een developed to describe radiative heat transfer.