RTR3JK6M.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
Lu'an Group has completed the world's largest coal mine facility which converts excess methane gas into electricity in Shanxi Province, North China, Xinhua reported.
The efficiency of the facility covers 99 percent of the discharged methane. It has a generator capacity of 30 megawatts and will start operating soon, the Lu'an Group, the company owning the Gaohe Coal Mine, announced.
Methane, one of the gases emitted during underground mining, is hazardous to human health.
However, concentrations ranging higher than 30 percent can be converted and turned into liquefied methyl alcohol, while concentrations between 10 and 20 percent can be used as fuel for internal combustion engines.
Methane concentrations lower than 10 percent--which make up 81 percent of the gas discharge--cannot be utilized for direct combustion.
The innovation is a solution to the predicament of waste disposal, said Jia Jian, the deputy head of the Methane Gas Research Institute of the company.
Jia added that through the recovery of the waste gas, not only does it help the reduction of greenhouse gases by up to 1.4 million tons, the recovered material can also produce 200 million kilowatts of electricity in a year.
China's current greenhouse gas emission is equivalent to 200 million tons of carbon dioxide. This comes from the production of more than 10 billion cubic meters of low-concentration methane gas annually from various coal mines.
The project of turning waste into usable material can be profitable and has a positive market potential, said Jia. The facility has drawn the attention of other coal mining firms, encouraging the signing of several agreements predicted to be able to reduce carbon emissions by 15.8 million tons.
Mining firms in China are going under increasing pressure as the government intensifies its campaign against pollution.
China's officials have a grim determination to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 40 to 45 percent from that of 2005.
Data showed that the energy consumption per unit of GDP and carbon emissions lowered to 4.6 and 5 percent, respectively, within the first three quarters of 2013. Carbon emissions are down to 28.56 percent compared to the level in 2005.
