Gasification is a process that has actually been used for many years and involves converting complex organic molecules and carbon, in both the liquid and solid state, to simple gases. Most of the gases produced are flammable and are therefore used as fuel in processes or applications where flammable gases are required. The conversion of solids and liquids to gas is usually accomplished by heating the solid, or liquid, in either the presence of very small amounts of air or no air at all. When no air is used the process is called pyrolysis or destructive distillation.

Before the introduction of natural gas into the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, all gas used in homes and industry came from the gasification of coal. Although gasification is really an old technology, until the invention of plasma gasification in 1995, it was a process that had its fair share of problems and drawbacks.

A gasification plant from the 1940s

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