South Africa’s Waterberg area, in the north of Limpopo, could contain up to one-trillion cubic feet (tcf) of coal bed methane (CBM), said Dr Philip Lloyd, honorary research fellow at UCT at this year’s Coaltrans conference.

Such an amount could be used to provide 5% of South Africa’s liquid fuel needs for the next 15 years, though CBM was unlikely to enter the local market owing to its distance from markets, said Lloyd.

He added that state involvement would be needed in order to develop the infrastructure capabilities needed to both transport and turn the CBM into usable material.

Lloyd noted that CBM is not suitable for power generation, as such large quantities are needed, but added that it could be turned into syngas, which is used in the production of synfuels, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen.