14 DAY TRIAL // Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane and the principal component of natural gas. Burning one molecule of methane in the presence of oxygen releases one molecule of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and two molecules of H2O (water).
Unfortunately, it's also an important greenhouse gas with a global warming potential, 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
A first US experimental project has begun this week at an abandoned West Virginia coal mine and will showcase a technology that can convert methane, a greenhouse gas, into a source of clean energy. It is a collaboration between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Energy (DoE) and private industry.
The Earth's crust contains huge amounts of methane. Large amounts of methane are produced anaerobically by methanogenesis, so coal mines are a significant source of methane, as reported by the EPA, who stated that ventilation shafts from underground coal mines produced an estimated 16.6 billion cubic meters of methane in 2000.
The technology for the demonstration is a thermal oxidation system that destroys methane in ventilation air by heating the gas to over 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and converting it to carbon dioxide and water. The heat produced in this process can then be used directly in mining operations such as coal drying, or it can be used to generate electricity.
Although this project represents the first demonstration of this technology on U.S. soil, it has been successfully operated at one pilot-scale site in Great Britain, as well as at two mines in Australia, one a future commercial-scale operation.
EPA, through its Coalbed Methane Outreach Program (CMOP), is contributing $500,000 to the joint project, and DOE is providing more than $1.1 million for the applications. CONSOL and MEGTEC are two major extraction companies that are together providing a total of approximately $400,000 in funding and resources, as well as technical support. In 2005, CONSOL Energy recovered and used more than seven billion cubic feet of methane from its U.S. coal mines using conventional technologies.
The purpose of the experiment was to prove that the recovery of coal mine methane is profitable and that by working cooperatively with coal companies and related industries, CMOP helps to identify and implement methods to capture and use coal mine methane instead of emitting it to the atmosphere.