Peak coal out coal electricity generation in favor of gas, although these plans are still a topic of much debate in Australian politics. Long-term plans for coal in Australia include large-scale export of brown coal to large developing nations such as China and India. Other groups such as the Australian Greens, suggest that coal be left in the ground to avoid its potential combustion either in Australia or in importer nations. Research in 2009 by the University of Newcastle in Australia concluded that Australian coal extraction could peak sometime after 2050. While the Australian Coal Association (ACA) optimistically estimates that Australia's identified
Coal gasification refiner wants to produce alkanes (i.e., hydrocarbons present in natural gas, gasoline, and diesel fuel), the coal gas is collected at this state and routed to a Fischer-Tropsch reactor. If, however, hydrogen is the desired end-product, the coal gas (primarily the CO product) undergoes the water gas shift reaction where more hydrogen is produced by additional reaction with water vapor: Although other technologies for coal gasification currently exist, all employ, in general, the same chemical processes. For low-grade coals (i.e., "brown coals") which contain significant amounts of water, there are technologies in which no steam is required during the reaction,