CONSOL Energy and Green Holdings Enlow, a greenhouse gas abatement company, have entered into an agreement to develop the largest ventilation air methane (VAM) emission abatement project in the US at CONSOL’s underground Enlow Fork mine in southwest Pennsylvania. The VAM abatement equipment to be installed at the mine will capture and destroy methane released during the mining process that would otherwise escape to the atmosphere through the mine’s ventilation system. The mine produces some 10 Mt/y of coal. This project should reduce VAM emissions by the equivalent of 190,000 t/y of carbon dioxide (tCO2e) and is expected to be operational in the second half of 2010.
“If the US intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will have to be addressed on a broad front dealing with many different sources of GHGs,” said Steven Winberg, Vice President, Research and Development, for CONSOL Energy. “We already have a large coalbed methane production business that removes methane from coal seams before mining, producing a valuable fuel. With this agreement, we will deal with methane that is released from a coal seam during the mining process.” Winberg said the project will allow CONSOL to move from its current small scale ventilation air methane capture program to a commercial scale effort that, if successful, can be applied at many of the company’s existing underground mines.
In addition to the capture of methane from coal seams and from mine ventilation, the company has a number of other projects in which it is currently involved, including the capture of CO2 from high pressure coal combustion equipment, the evaluation of CO2 storage in unmineable coal seams or in other deep geological formations. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more effective at trapping heat than CO2. Globally, VAM emissions from coal mines amount to about 300 MtCO2e each year.
The project at Enlow Fork is the first of a number of VAM abatement undertakings that Green Holdings Corp expects to take in the US in anticipation of a strong, growing market for carbon offsets to be generated by the projects. Green Holdings has a focused, high growth strategy with significant projects under development in the US and China – the two largest sources of VAM emissions in the world.
Green Holdings will supply the capital, will operate the unit and will be responsible for selling the emissions reduction credits. CONSOL will provide the ventilation air fan, site and technical support. Green Holdings is a vertically integrated GHG emission abatement company using proven technologies to implement projects under various greenhouse gas initiatives. Currently, it is focused on developing projects that reduce or abate VAM emissions from underground coal mines, resulting in significant carbon offsets that will be monetised on a growing international market. Green Holdings Enlow is a wholly owned subsidiary.
CONSOL Energy has 15 bituminous coal mining complexes in six states and reports Proven and Probable coal reserves of 4,500 Mt. It is also a majority owner of CNX Gas Corp, a leading Appalachian gas producer.
