Cooperative Project on Methane Capture and Use: Best Practice Guidance on Effective Methane Drainage and Use in Coal Mines
Countries: Kazakhstan, Ukraine and China
Duration: 12-18 months
National Implementing
Agencies: Ministries, companies, organizations and institutions from energy, coal and industry sectors of the participating countries
Executing Agency: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Budget Available: US$ 100,000
Supporting Institutions: Methane to Market (M2M) Partnership of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and UNECE
Brief Description: At its third and fourth sessions, the UNECE Ad Hoc Group of Experts (AHGE) on CMM agreed that the global coal mining industry lacked a set of recommended (accepted) principles and standards to guide mine operators, regulators, government officials and technical professionals in more effectively managing their methane problems, especially in emerging economies. In this respect the Cooperative Project on Methane Capture and Use to Improve Mine Safety was launched at the 4th session of the AHGE on CMM (October 2008). The organizations supporting the initiative (UNECE and M2M Partnership) aim to contribute to improving mine safety practices through the development of a publication providing “Best Practices Guidance on Effective Methane Drainage and Use in Coal Mines”. The publication would detail the benefits, objectives and principles of coal mine methane drainage and utilization in order to reduce fatalities and injuries of mine workers, protect mine property, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and efficiently utilize valuable energy resources. The supporting organizations are planning to launch the best practice guidance at a high-level event at the M2M Partnership Expo in India in March 2010 involving senior corporate, government and international officials.
Although the benefit of developing and publishing the best practice guidance is obvious, the value of the project will be maximised only if the content of the document is exposed to a wide audience that subsequently adopts the best practices as a part of the normal course of coal mining. Therefore the project intents to disseminate the best practices guidance to a targeted audience through a series of regional workshops that are held at locations central to coal mines that frequently experience accidents caused by methane gas emissions into the coal mines. Globally recognized experts will present topics that are directly taken from the best practice guidance in a way that allows the audience to understand the technical and other benefits and potential ways of adopting these practices within the existing mining environment.
The workshops will also serve as a method of assessing the potential of follow-on work that will be accomplished by local workshops, which will be held for the benefit of mines willing to cooperate. These workshops will be focused on the problems that local mines are experiencing, will include analysis of safety issues related to CMM, and presentation of potential options for resolving the issues in a cost effective manner. In addition to increasing safety the project will also contribute to CMM market creation.
Objective: The objective of the project is to reach out, train, create awareness and spread the knowledge of best practice guidance on effective methane drainage and use in coal mines and to foster continuous improvements in this field in the emerging economies. The main output is to perform the necessary work to plan and hold three workshops; in conjunction with them assessments of mining conditions and of extant gas drainage and recovery practices will be performed by a team of experts. The output will comprise recommendations that can lead to improvement of gas drainage and use practices at mining areas in selected countries of the UNECE region (Kazakhstan and Ukraine) and China. Coal mining companies within these regions that indicate willingness to cooperate will be selected for additional follow-up in the form of a focused consultation at which the experts will present material useful to the mining professionals wishing to implement best practices for drainage and use of methane. The UNECE project manager will identify international CMM experts and work with them for selection of coal mining companies that will be good targets for the analysis and follow-up workshops. Development of these criteria will be done in concert with development of an analysis template and workshop framework. These outputs and the resulting documents will be published by the UNECE.
A project website, available to the public, will be developed using the existing UNECE website (http://www.unece.org/energy/cmm/Welcome.html), which will encourage efficient project replication and make available the work products derived from this project by routinely updating the website with reports and other materials produced during the project. The website will function as a mode of contact and solicitation for expert assistance and will be linked to the M2M Partnership Project Database.
For these activities the UNECE and the AHGE on CMM will identify and secure candidate sites for workshops and encourage the participation of coal mines, in which methane related mine safety problems continue to plague the industry.
Expected Accomplishments: The main outcome of this project is the dissemination of the best practice guidance, in order to encourage the adoption of those practices by industries to improve safety, environmental, and economic conditions within coal mining areas that continue to experience costly methane related accidents.
As CMM is captured, it could be consumed or sold as energy fuel and thus will contribute to CMM market formation. Members of the project team will conduct a series of workshops in the project countries (Ukraine, Kazakhstan and China) to explain and publicize the best practice guidance documents and convey the information in the document within the relevant UNECE member countries. In addition to holding workshops to explain best practices, these experts, with the help of national experts, will conduct assessments of the conditions and practices existing in the project country’s coal mining regions that hamper achievement of optimal recovery and use of coal mine methane. The existing practice may result in unsafe work conditions. The experts will present the results of their assessment at the workshops and recommend practices that could lead to higher methane recovery and use and improved safety. Where possible, individual mines in the project country will be identified where the project team will provide consultation focused on specific issues hampering optimal methane recovery and use.
Main Activities:
(a) Conducting assessments of the conditions and practices that are unique to the project county’s coal basins and coal fields. These assessments will identify problems that hamper improvement in recovery and use of coal mine methane and in turn negatively impact mine safety;
(b) Suggesting best guidance practices that will lead to increased methane recovery and utilization and improved mine safety. Key representatives of the mining industry and local government will be invited and encouraged to participate in these workshops;
(c) Providing recommendations on ways to assure adoption of best practices, identifying sources of training relevant to mining conditions. Where possible, individual mines will be identified and invited to participate in a focused consultation by the team experts. The consultation will provide specific suggestions for improving methane recovery and use at the selected mine.
