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Decision guidance for the utilisation of Coal Mine Methane (CMM)

This Wiki is part of the project "Coal Mine Methane - New Solutions for Use of CMM - Reduction of GHG emissions (CoMeth)". The project, funded by the European Union (No.218935), is conducted in close co-operation among eight project partners from different countries: Germany, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the UK. It aims at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by the uncontrolled exhausting of coal mine methane (CMM) to the atmosphere and the exploration ofsuitable economically promising schemes for its energetic use.

The work for this wiki has been done in the years 2008 through 2012. Thus the included documents and statements on the processing techniques refer to this time period.

The property rights of the contents belong to the authors of the articles/entries. Any kind of reproduction is subjected to their written permission. The contents of the wiki do not represent the opinion of the European Commission. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that might be made of CoMeths data. Readers should verify any information obtained from this wiki before acting upon it. The CoMeth`s consortium is not responsible for any use that might be made of information in this wiki. - June 2012

The UNECE Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane and the Methane to Markets Partnership (M2M) Coal Technical Subcommittee and Project Network has worked out a Glossary of Terms for Coalbed Methane/Coal Mine Methane

The Russian version of the CoMeth-Wiki may be found on: CoMeth-Wiki-RU

This Wiki will support you addressing challenges in CMM-projects in particular in the following fields:

Reasons for the utilization of CMM

A short introdution to explain the reasons for the utilization of CMM. CMM contains greenhouse gas methane. It is a hazard for coal mines. But it is also an innovative fuel.

Quality of CMM

The quality of CMM depends on quality of the resource and the kind of extraction.

Methods of gas prognosis

The determination of gas content and gas amount in the extraction areas is important for safe coal production. The methods of gas prognosis will be briefly presented.

Approval procedure

After clarifying the project conditions the approval for operation and the procedure of the approval for the JI project should get started. These two procedures have to be performed in parallel:

Technical procedure description

Emission rights procedure description

Financial aspects

The financial aspects of a project generally depend on the local conditions. In some countries CMM is equal to renewable fuels. As a result the financial situation is different in every country. Consequently, the conditions in each country are covered separatly.

Legal aspects

Like the financial aspects the legal aspects of a project are embedded in the national context. The relevant legislation for CMM project are shown for every country separately.

Generation and Extraction of CMM in general

CMM is generated during the extration of coal. Methane is a product from coalification of the biological material dating back to 300 million years ago. Part of this methane is still connected to the coal layers and the surrounding strata.

Technical aspects in detail

This section contains a list of the technologies applicable, including a brief introduction and a rating of operating experiences. A comparison of the robustness against changes of the gas will help assess the suitability of these technologies.

Furthermore, a short description of practical examples during these projects is given with a focus of technical problems during the implementation and the solution for these problems.

Stakeholders in CMM utilisation projects

The realisation of CMM utlisation projects requires a large number of parties. As long as any kind of used technologies is not well known at mines all parties have to get familiar with the project. A serious estimation of operation and financial impact is essential for the success.

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Therefore, the Wiki will look at the specific conditions of the participating countries in more detail and will provide the reader with specific country information.

Tasks of a CMM project

The basis of the presented content is developed in four workpackages:

1. Basics on country conditions (WP1)
2. Basics on technologies for utilisation of CMM (WP2)
3. Concept for CMM utilisation with production of LNG for natural gas replacement (WP3)
4. Optimisation and development of CMM utilisations of methane from ventilation air at a location in Russia (WP5)

A large number of market instruments and different conditions were collected and evaluated in WP1. These results will give an overview of financial and legal aspects. The technical background information presented in this Wiki were investigated and developed in WP2. Practical experiences with CMM utilisation projects were provided by WP3 and WP5. So this Wiki is expected to help identify the best technical solution and project constellation for the given local conditions.

More information on the whole project may be found on http://www.cometh.info/en/#welcome.html

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