National University of Science and Technology—NUST MISIS, Moscow, Russia

Guseva I. P., Post-Graduate Student, Project Engineer, guseva@irina96.ru

High-rate and high-output mining of gas-bearing coal includes currently a set of gas drainage activities. Coal methane is both an industrial hazard and ecological peril as its atmospheric emission aggravates greenhouse gas effect, but at the same time, methane is a valued basic material. The concern in connection with the environmental aspect of coal methane problem has lately grown essentially. This article addresses the problem of improvement of the coal mine methane utilization technology with a view to reducing atmospheric emission of greenhouse gases. The author substantiates the need to develop the smaller scale chemistry approaches to utilization of methane recovered in gas drainage. This trend seems to be promising for the coal sector due to the specific nature of gas release sources. The test data of the energy-conversion technology in processing of methane recovered in pre-mine drainage, with production of colloidal carbon using recuperative heat exchanger are presented. This technology features unique ecological measures. The challenging trends of the technology improvement are planned, including utilization of decontamination gas. The existing systems of methane utilization are insufficiently effective because of inconstant parameters of methane–air mixtures. Gas recovered in pre-mine drainage has the most stable composition. However, pre-mine drainage is only used in 2–3 mines in Russia. The main reasons for the slow pace of the pre-mine drainage expansion are the organizational and financial complexities because of necessity of long-term completion of wells after hydraulic impact. Extensive employment of the technology can promote a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emission and the enhanced mining safety.

The study was carried out at NUST MISIS and supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 23-19-00398.

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