Grant: Alliance Grants

Methane comprises about 20% of current global green house gas emissions and reducing methane emissions is widely considered to be the quickest opportunity to slow the rate of global warming. Fugitive methane resulting from surface mining of coal is a major source of anthropogenic methane but has proven challenging to predict, quantify, prevent or mitigate. A multiyear and multifaceted program is proposed that will quantify fugitive methane emissions from operating and abandoned metallurgical coal mine operations in Canada. Emissions that will quantified include: 1) the background emissions that occur naturally; 2) fugitive emissions from the coal and related strata directly attributed to the coal mine operation; 3) fugitive emissions related to coal handling and waste rock storage; and 4) fugitive emissions following mine abandonment, which maybe attributed to the mining operation. The study will use state of the art existing and proven technologies to quantify emissions which will include top down methods using satellite and air borne data collection and bottoms up methods using direct measurements of gas contents and emissions. Determining the timing and location of fugitive methane gases will provide data that will assess the potential for mitigating methane emissions through capture and potentially utilization. The potential for mitigation will be determined by high resolution reservoir modeling at the mine scale which will further determine the applicability of pre-mining methane drainage or siloing the produced coal for mitigating emissions.The study provides research trainees a unique opportunity to participate in a study of global importance and gain expertise and skills in a rapidly evolving area of research that of importance to Canada.