Tashkent State Technical University (Tashkent, Uzbekistan):

Umarov F. Ya., Dean, Candidate of Economic Sciences, e-mail: fumarov@gmail.com

In view of the oil and natural gas resources being limited and expensive, the world energy producers consider coal the fuel of the 21st century and associate the long-term development prospects of thermal power in different countries with coal. Uzbekistan possesses huge coal reserves. Mining of the known reserves of mineral carbon, exclusively, will take over 200 years. However, the author finds conventional coal mining, dressing and combustion technologies insufficiently energy-efficient and emphasizes high ecological impact of thermal stations. Based on the experience of underground coal gasification in Uzbekistan, the article presents synthesis-gas technology by way of in situ thermal treatment of coal beds. Wide industrial introduction of the technology, alongside the others advanced techniques, will greatly enhance energy efficiency and ecological safety of coal use in power engineering.

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