Sasol, Eskom Sign South Africa Coal to Gas Deal

Sasol New Energy and Eskom have signed a research agreement to jointly explore the full value chain of underground coal gasification (UCG) technology development in South Africa, Eskom said in a statement.

The two companies plan to share knowledge and cooperate in evaluating the UCG technology.

Both Sasol and Eskom have a licensing agreement with technology partner, Ergo Exergy Technologies Inc. (Ergo Exergy) of Canada. Ergo Exergy’s εUCGTM technology has been the basis for the success of three UCG projects in the past few years, Eskom said.

These projects include the Huntly West UCG project in New Zealand developed by Solid Energy, Linc Energy’s initial Chinchilla UCG project in Australia and Eskom’s Majuba UCG pilot project in South Africa.