Huge CH4, NO2 and CO Emissions from Coal Mines in the Kuznetsk Basin (Russia) Detected by Sentinel-5P

Abstract

The coal industry is the largest global emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2). However, recent data suggests that coal mine methane (CH4) emissions worldwide are higher than those of the oil and gas industry. Furthermore, the coal industry is less active in reducing methane emissions than the oil and gas sectors due to lower profitability. Although uncertainties remain in quantifying methane emissions from mines, the use of satellite observations is revolutionizing the process of monitoring and improving the accuracy of emission accounting. The methodology presented here allows us to determine background CH4 concentrations and improve our ability to detect emission events using Sentinel-5P data. Knowing the background concentrations for the area of interest provides us the opportunity to track seasonal and annual variations and trends, as well as quickly detect periodic or accidental emissions from unregulated sources, etc. The methodology and systematic research applied in this paper for the period of May 2018 to the end of 2022 enables us to detect hundreds of large-scale emissions of CH4, NO2, and CO from the coal mines in the Kuznetsk Basin (the Kemerovo region), the largest coal mining area in Russia. We estimated that the amount of these emissions is significantly higher than the emissions reported by various authors for other coal mining regions such as Poland and Australia. We found that in cases of high methane quantity there is a positive correlation between NO2 and CO emissions in time and location. The source of emissions in the study area is homogeneous, which allows it to be used as a benchmark for building models to estimate and track emissions in heterogeneous areas.