Coal plants worldwide are grappling with low-capacity utilization levels and environmental issues; and have not only become unprofitable to utilities, but also uneconomical to customers. Developed countries with significant coal capacities such as Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom...

China is short of clean energy, particularly conventional natural gas. The proven per capital natural gas reserve is only 1/12th of the world average. However, China has large coal bed methane (CBM) resources with development potential which can be recovered from surface boreholes independent of...