The first and the deepest. The government of Alberta is putting $8.83 million into a Swan Hills Synfuels underground coal gasification project. The project will be the first of it's kind in North America and the deepest in the world so far, reaching deeper than 1,000 meters below the surface, according to Calgary-based Swan Hills Synfuels. It's a $20 million project hoping to demonstrate that it would be possible to manufacture clean synthetic gas from coal resources in north-central Alberta. The technology is more or less like coal mining without a mine. Instead of an open pit you dig wells in the ground reaching down to the coal resources. Then you inject oxygen and saline water turning the coal into gas. Among Swan Hills Synfuels' competitors are Laurus Energy, a Houston-based company that borrows technology from the former Soviet Union to do almost the same thing. (see Coal Mining Without the Mine). Scotland is funding a similar project. The investment from the government of Alberta comes through Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI) and the coal seams are also expected to be used in future carbon capture and sequestration processes, after the coal is turned into gas. "Alberta has had success with coalbed methane and cleaner coal technology is part of our overall climate change strategy." said Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology Minister Doug Horner, in a statement. The syngas produced from the underground coal resources can be used for pretty much the same purposes as natural gas: power generation, gas for home heating, hydrogen, methanol and transportation fuels. It can also be used for pre-combustion carbon dioxide capture. According to AERI the method of undergroand coal gasification poses no risk to shallow fresh groundwater since the depths are below 1,000 metres. And being underground it's more enviromental friendly compared to traditional coal mining or coal gasifications methods, but of course not near as clean as solar or wind power.