Abstract
Coal mine methane (CMM) is a considerable, relatively unused, resource in Russia. With the second largest proven coal reserves in the world, behind the USA, Russia has a tremendous coalbed methane (CBM) resource. The coal mine methane (CMM) emissions which are created from the CBM resource by way of coal mining yield a significant fraction of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Developing CMM utilization projects will mitigate at least some of these emissions. Having evaluated the CMM resources at various underground coal mines in Kuzbass, it has been determined that it is economically viable to apply a variety of CMM utilization technologies in Russia. CMM use for electricity production was found to be quite capital intensive. Although economically viable, this option was the least attractive of the four technologies which were considered. Thermal energy production from boilers and delivering liquefied CMM at vehicle fueling stations were of intermediate potential. The most attractive option is the fueling of vehicles with compressed CMM. This required the lowest capital investment and had the highest paybacks, including a very rapid 2 ½ year payback.
Highlights
Russia has the second largest proven reserves of coal in the world, behind only the USA (BP, 2014)
The coal reserves provide a large source for coalbed methane (CBM) and the production still yields a significant amount of coal mine methane (CMM) from underground coal mines
The economic viability of each of these options were evaluated with an economic analysis which calculated net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), investment payback period in years and profitability index (PI)
Summary
The coal mines in Kuzbass yield the CBM in the coal in the various forms of coal mine methane (CMM): drained gas, ventilation air methane (VAM), and abandoned mine methane (AMM). In the underground coal mines, the goaf methane consists of methane entering that zone during the unloading of the coal seam massif and which has migrated into that zone from the underlying and overlying coal seams, and from the remaining coal mass formed from remaining broken coal pillars. Given this mechanism, it is important to begin the understanding of the CMM resource by studying the formation of the goaf. Having information on the potential volume of CMM in these man-made reservoirs (goafs), which is based on data regarding methane in the goaf, provides the basis for evaluating the economic viability of CMM utilization projects – which is described below
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