Methane recovery and harnessing for energy and chemical uses at coal mine sites

ended

Methane emissions associated with coal extraction are an environmental and safety risk, but also a potential source of clean energy and chemicals. The scope of the present work is to develop an integrated approach for upgrading this methane in ventilation emissions of working shafts (VAM) as well as those emissions coming from abandoned mines (AMM). This strategy includes the evaluation of concentrations and flow rates in terms of the shaft geological and operational features (working or flooded) and the design of separation processes and chemical reactors, either for methane combustion or for transforming this methane into useful chemicals, such as hydrogen or methanol. Different strategies are proposed: optimization of the mine operation for providing valuable flow rates and methane concentrations, the development of methane concentration procedures (adsorption, membranes; using nanomaterials with tailored properties); use of advanced reactors and combustion devices (thermal/catalytic reverse flow reactors, membrane reactors, etc.) able to deal with these low concentrations. The final goal of the project is to propose integrated approaches from the optimization of VAM and AMM extraction procedures to the fully upgrading of the methane contained in these streams. For this purpose, the project includes in-situ geological studies, experimentation at lab scale, and computer-aided simulation and optimization processes.