Coal Mining - Overview
The Coal industry today is responsible for providing 40% of the world’s energy needs. Global coal consumption is dramatically increasing and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts an almost 75% increase in consumption between 2003 and 2030 due to new extraction techniques and rich, accessible, and geographically disperse reserves on every continent.
While there is significant energy utilized in the processing and transporting of coal, the majority of the 60 projects being considered by the United Nations in the coal sector have to do with methane capture during extraction. On average, the projects in this pipeline as of September, 2007 were projected to provide over 385,000 Certified Emissions Reductions (CER’s) each per year, which would be worth $7.7M euros annually at today’s trading rate. (source: UNEP Risoe CDM/JI Pipeline Analysis and Database, December 2007).
Coal mining activities emit over 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually through the methane which escapes in basically 3 ways:
- Drainage systems that use vertical or horizontal wells to recover methane before mining begins to reduce concentration enough to protect workers.
- Ventilation air methane (VAM) which is basically the diluted methane that remains in the mine and escapes through the ventilation shaft. While it is typically less than 1% methane, it is still the largest source of methane emissions from coal mining.
- Methane escaping from abandoned mines, which still have vents, ventilation pipes or breaks in the ground that haven’t been sealed.
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