VAM History in Brief
In 2007, world's first commercial VAM project was commissioned. The VAM processing plant is based on MEGTEC technology first demonstrated as pure VAM abatement (at the Thoresby Mine of British Coal) in the UK in 1994 and then combined with steam production in 2001-2002. The success of this long-term evaluation led to the installation of the VAM Power Plant named "WestVAMP", which is installed at the West Cliff Colliery of BHP Billiton, the world's largest diversified resources company.
The MEGTEC VAM technology applied at WestVAMP not only reduces VAM emissions to atmosphere but also uses the energy released while abating the methane to generate electricity. By mid 2010, the VAM Power Plant had generated over 625,000 Carbon Credits and over 100,000 MWh of electricity.
Early in 2010, the UN formally approved the world's first VAM-based CER's (Carbon Credits related to the Kyoto Protocol). This was for the first MEGTEC VAM projects in China, supplied in 2008 to the ZhengZhou Mining Group in the Henan Province in China.
In 2010, MEGTEC contracted the largest VAM installation yet. The project is for the SongZao Mining Group in the ChongQing Province in China, and will abate VAM emissions while generating hot water for local utilization.
Innovative Technology for Coal Mine Ventilation
The system at WestVAMP in Australia is based on a patented combination of emission control and steam-cycle technologies. By using the compact and flameless VOCSIDIZER® regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) as an energy source, MEGTEC has made it possible to generate high grade, super-heated steam from a fuel with 0.9% methane content. Each hour, the installation is treating the methane content in 150,000 scfm (250,000 m3) of ventilation air. The steam has the same quality as used at traditional power plants. It is used to drive a conventional 6 MegaWatt steam turbine, which generates electricity that can be delivered to the state grid or directly to the mine.The volume of ventilation air treated amounts to only 20 % of the total volume of ventilation air available from the ventilation shaft. This is the first power plant of its kind, capable of operating on the energy of the extremely dilute fuel of ventilation air with less than 1% methane.
Based on the success of developing an efficient way to process VAM emissions, and for bringing the technology to the global market, MEGTEC was honored by the U.S. EPA with the U.S. EPA Climate Protection aware in 2008.
MEGTEC is cooperating with partners around the world in order to efficiently develop and adapt VAM processing to the various local needs and requirements of global coal mining and to the need of reducing the effects on Climate Change from emissions of coal mine methane.
Methane as a Green House Gas
When coal is formed, so is methane. When the coal is excavated, methane is released. Since methane in air is explosive in concentrations between 5 and 15%, ventilation air is used to dilute the methane to levels below 1 % - well below the explosion limit. This safety measure leads to very large volumes of air with extremely low methane content being released to atmosphere.
Since methane emissions are a green house gas driving the global warming more than 20 times more potent than CO2, BHP Billiton can convert the emission reduction processing the VAM of only 20% of the ventilation air available at the West Cliff ventilation shaft to carbon credits corresponding to 250,000 tons of CO2e (CO2-equivalents). A VAM Power Plant treating the full volume of ventilation air can generate approximately one million carbon credits.
Read about MEGTEC's VOCSIDIZER(TM) Technology and AES China's first commercial coal mine VAM project in Chongqing.
MEGTEC to build world’s largest coal mine ventilation methane emissions abatement system in China
Signatories of the agreement included (from left to right): Ian McInnes, Deputy Chairman of Chongqing Dongjiang Songzao Renewable Energy Development Co. Ltd.; Mohit Uberoi, President & CEO of MEGTEC Systems; and Xie Heng Hua, Chairman of Chongqing Dongjiang Songzao Renewable Energy Development Co. Ltd.
Read about the MEGTEC VAM project for the ZhengZhou Mining Group in China, and the globally first VAM-based CERs to be formally approved by the UN.
Read about MEGTEC's VAM Power Plant technology and the domestically and internationally awarded project WestVAMP at BHP Billiton in Australia.
References:
Methane and Climate Change, published by Earthscan 2010.
Best Practice Guidance for effective Methane Drainage and use in Coal Mine, published in 2010 as #31 in the ECE Energy Series of the UN Economic Commission for Europe and by the Methane to Markets Partnership.
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MEGTEC Ventilation Air Methane (VAM) Processing
MEGTEC Solutions for VAM Abatement, Energy Recovery & Utilization
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