Eco Factor: Recycling coalbed methane wells using natural processes.
Colorado-based Luca Technologies is trying to increase the production of natural gas without creating any new wells. The company has developed a process to generate and extract more natural gas from depleted coalbed methane wells by introducing water, microbes and nutrients into the coal seams.
The company has acquired 1350 wells, which have been sold by their original owners because they’re no longer productive enough. Luca’s technology is just like fertilizing a lawn, during which bacteria underground digest coal and make methane, which is the main ingredient of natural gas. The microbes eat more coal to produce more methane.
Luca Tech claims that “farming” natural gas in depleted wells in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana alone would provide more than gas the annual consumption in the U.S. Moreover, since the microbes, nutrients and minerals occur naturally, the process is being claimed to be more environmentally benign.
Via: CNet
