Thank you, Tom.
I'm Graham Campbell. I'm with the Office of Energy Research and Development at Natural Resources Canada.
I believe we're coming back to the committee on May 14 for a discussion on clean coal in general. But, Mr. Tonks, just briefly, gasification is one of the three types of technologies that we would see moving ahead that could potentially offer two or three benefits.
One would be the direct capture of CO2 from the gasification process. The second is that there are a number of by-products that come from gasification that can be potentially very useful, including hydrogen, by way of example. And there are other by-products that come off as well that might be useful. The overall efficiency of the system when it uses gasification technologies is significantly greater than what we have now with conventional systems.
So you put your finger on one of the main and most promising areas for the future use of coal in a sustainable way. It's encouraging also to note that there are projects happening in Alberta now, one in particular, which is led by a consortium, that will take gasification technologies significantly further ahead, should that project go ahead. So there are some encouraging developments on the private sector side as well, in addition to the research we're doing.
But stay tuned for May 14, when another colleague and I will come back to the committee for a fuller explanation of clean coal technology.