Project Name:Methane Capture and Power Generation from Coal Mine Methane in the Concession HER-FRIED

     Country:Germany

     Description:

The project aims to reduce GHG emissions by the recovery of  coal mine methane (CMM) from the closed coal mine 'Friedrich der GroЯe' to use it as fuel for three gas engines to produce electrical power.

     Degassing of Coal Mine Gas (CMM) is an unavoidable occurrence of hard coal mining. In addition to active coal mines there are a lot of abandoned mines, which also emit CMM after mining. Even after shut down mining activities the CMM escapes over many years through open shafts, cracks and existing degassing wells in the overburden directly or diffusely into the atmosphere. CMM mainly consists of the harmful greenhouse gas methane (GWP 21), so that using of CMM becomes more important particularly with regard to the world-wide consensus of reducing green-house-gas emissions.

In the German Ruhr district there are industrial hard coal mining activities for more than hundred years. In the whole area there are more than 100 known shafts. The coal-mine-methane captured in this project would otherwise escape directly through cracks and fissures diffuse through the overburden rocks into the atmosphere. The project couples the production of power with the conversion of the 21 time stronger green-house-gas methane into carbon dioxide.