Methane emissions and demethanation of coal mines in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin between 1997 and 2016

Abstract

Between 1997 and 2016 we observed important changes in hard coal extraction and methane emission in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. Hard coal extraction in the near future will be very dangerous because it will be necessary to reach deeper methane-rich coal seams. Permanent monitoring of the volume of emitted and captured methane is necessary to combat the methane hazard. The predictability of gaseous hazards are important in order to keep underground work safe. We gathered and analysed data from three coal companies: Katowice Coal Holding, the Coal Company, Jastrzębie Coal Company and in the whole of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin for the last twenty years and this allowed us to notice changes and CH4 trends in ventilation emission and demethanation. There is a decrease in the extraction of hard coal from year to year. At the same time there is an increase in the total methane emissions which forces actions aimed to effective contracting the methane hazard. Specifically, methane emission has been increasing for years, making hard coal extraction very dangerous. We observed increases in CH4 vent emission and volume of methane coming from underground drainage systems. Much more methane is released during hard coal extraction at deeper mine levels. Throughout the entire research period the methane hazard increased. Therefore, the development of modern technologies for methane capturing should contribute to improvement of hazardous conditions for coal mining in the basin.

Will It Be Possible to Put into Practice the Mitigation of Ventilation Air Methane Emissions? Review on the State-of-the-Art and Emerging Materials and Technologies

“…Furthermore, it turned out that even a significant reduction in coal extraction and the number of mines does not lead to a reduction in VAM, which has been noticed in Poland. As reported in [9], there are several factors contributing to this phenomenon such as increasing longwall lengths, mining speed, and increasing the saturation of coal seam related to deeper exploitation of the raw material (e.g., in some Polish coal mines, coal is extracted from 1000 m below the ground level [15]).…”

Methane Emissions Against the Background of Natural and Mining Conditions in the Budryk and Pniówek Mines in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (Poland)

“…The largest dislocations in the USCB such as the Kłodnica, Książ or Bełk faults have nearly latitudinal orientation and displace layers to the south (Kędzior et al 2013;Dreger and Kędzior 2019). Table 1 Characteristics of the main faults in the Budryk and Pniówek mining areas (JCC internal report).…”

“…The most important economic factor in every mine is the annual coal production. Economic possibilities, natural hazards, technical di culties and market size affect the annual coal output of each mine (Dreger 2019(Dreger ,2020Dreger and Kędzior 2019). Changes in coal production over time in both analysed mines are illustrated in Fig.…”

“…1) is the most industrialised region in Poland, providing bituminous coal for heat and power generation, as well as coking coal for coke production. To maintain pro tability and keep the output at the highest possible level, hard coal is extracted from deeper seams, while natural hazards have been increasing every year (Dreger and Kędzior 2019). Reaching deeper coal seams carries a high methane risk, a risk of underground tremors, and intensi cation of temperature hazards.…”

“…Reaching deeper coal seams carries a high methane risk, a risk of underground tremors, and intensi cation of temperature hazards. The increase of methane emission is one of the most dangerous problems in modern mining activity and entails work suspension, evacuations and even fatalities after methane explosions (Duda and Krzemień 2018;Dreger and Kędzior 2019). Two mines from the USCB were chosen to identify and study variations in methane emissions.…”