China is eager to deal with one of the primary culprits behind its alarming coal mining fatalities, as evidenced by the Pre-Mining Degasification Symposium held in South China’s Guizhou province on March 31st and April 1st. Sponsored by the province’s Coal Mines Administration Bureau and the Coal Mine Safety Inspection and Supervision Bureau, coal mining executives gathered in Guiyang, a modest-sized metropolis (by China’s standards) of more than three million folks, to discuss how the most recent international applied sciences might help degasify China’s 2,000 coal mines, both improving mine security and reducing China’s global output of air pollution. Greater than eighty representatives from 40 coal mines attended in China’s second largest coal-producing province to seek out out about the newest overseas know-how transfers, which could help cut back coal mining deaths.
Over the centuries as natural matter is transformed to coal, methane, also called CH4 and the first constituent in natural gas, is produced throughout this process and saved in pockets within a coal seam. For every ton of coal produced, during the “coalification” course of, more than 5000 cubic feet of methane is created. Coal mining releases this methane into the ambiance. Over ninety percent of methane emissions come from underground coal mining. Because gasoline content material is higher with depth, safety hazards improve through the underground coal mining process. Degasifying coal mines has been confirmed to assist make those underground coal mines safer for miners.
Volatile gases produced in the course of the coal mining process reportedly kill more than 15 miners each day in China, about 80 p.c of the world’s coal mining deaths. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, a mining engineer by training, has demanded China improve conditions for Chinese language coal miners. Critics, such because the Chinaworker.org, say the “underlying trigger is a lack of funding in degasification equipment.” The web site claims, “Managers calculate that it’s cheaper to pay out meager death benefits to miners’ households than (to) raise funding.” The Economist magazine reported that Chinese coal miners make as little as $60/monthly.
China is also involved about its air emissions from coal mining. Worldwide, the coal mining industry launched over 436 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2000. That accounted for about 8 p.c of the overall industrial methane emissions that 12 months. China, Russia, Poland and the United States account for over 77 % of coal mining methane emissions. By means of the yr 2020, China’s share of worldwide emissions will bounce to 45 p.c. These emissions may very well be severely lowered if Chinese coal mines captured the methane gas to be used in assembly its soaring energy wants, slightly than vented into the environment every time a new coal tunnel is opened.
Considered one of the key draws on the Guiyang Pre-Mining Degasification Symposium had been shows about the most recent coalbed methane drilling innovation by Tunaye Sai, Director of China Operations for Pacific Asia China Energy (TSX: PCE; Other OTC: PCEEF), and Nathan Mitchell of Mitchell Drilling Company (MDC) in Brisbane, Australia. Coal mining companies opened discussions with PCE after their presentation. “Executives from fifty mines confirmed interest in the Dymaxion® drilling know-how to improve mining safety,” said Tunaye Sai. All of them showed interest? “All of them,” responded Tunaye Sai. PCE reported in a information release on Wednesday, “The Pace-MDC joint enterprise group is presently getting ready a business plan for the instant development of this new strategy so as to address the demand, which arose from the attendees at this symposium.”
“They are having issues in their mines,” explained Tunaye Sai, who can also be a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. As a result of they have not been in a position to successfully degasify their mines, 4 of the attending Chinese coal mining firms instantly approached Tunaye Sai and Mitchell about using this state-of-the-artwork drilling know-how. Earlier this year, PCE and MDC introduced they have been forming a joint enterprise to offer MDC’s proprietary Dymaxion® drilling technology to companies in China, to help degasify their coal mines. MDC is Australia’s largest privately owned drilling firm, and their Dymaxion technology has been widely discussed by coal mining insiders. The PCE and MDC joint enterprise firm has the unique rights to make use of the Dymaxion know-how in China.
In a tape-recorded interview, Tunaye Sai advised StockInterview, “The mixture of a horizontal and vertical intersection attracts the methane gasoline from the coal seam and captures it on the surface.” Australian newspapers have been exuberant over the Dymaxion® approach, calling it “revolutionary” and “radical.” In its headline, one Australian newspaper called MDC’s state-of-the-art G-55 drill rig “the Lamborghini of drill rigs,” and remarked how their drill rigs provided improved flexibility and value effectivity.
The Dymaxion floor to in-seam (SIS) drilling methodology uses modified multipurpose mineral drill rigs, specifically designed bottom-gap assemblies and specifically educated personnel. The method involves drilling a 60 to 90 diploma hole from the surface and steering it by way of a medium radius bend to enter the target coal seam horizontally. The 96mm gap is then steered for as much as 1200 meters within the seam towards a previously drilled vertical manufacturing nicely. A homing gadget, lowered down the vertical effectively to the target seam, aids the intersection with the vertical nicely. The vertical effectively can be geared up with an appropriate pump to dewater the seam. After the hydrostatic head has been sufficiently lowered, the methane gasoline will circulate to the floor. Newspaper reports additionally say this technique permits for significant financial savings over alternate underground gasoline drainage drilling methods.
The Dymaxion technology clearly turned heads on the current Gasification Symposium. “Certainly one of the businesses is a big firm, mining 10 million tons of coal per year,” said Tunaye Sai. “Final December, 12 folks died in one of the coal mining company’s tunnels.” He explained that when coal miners are opening a tunnel, the gas comes out – generally explosively. “By utilizing the Dymaxion approach, they’ll let the gasoline out before they begin mining a tunnel,” he added.
Discussions with the Chinese coal corporations are in the preliminary stages. “They need to give us a block – not one that is being mined now, however one that may be mined in just a few years,” stated Tunaye Sai. “We’re working on an arrangement right now as a result of they are very fascinated.” He defined that the relationship would involve a continuous process. “We wouldn’t simply drill it and then abandon it,” he added. “We will probably be making sure that the gas will come out constantly and monitoring it.”
Tunaye Sai said that Pacific Asia China Power was targeting the larger mines. “Amongst them, about ten corporations mine about four million tons per yr or extra. Those are the ones we are talking to.” PCE has ordered the drilling gear, and it should arrive in China round October. “As soon as it’s there, we can implement our plan, perhaps in November or December.” He informed us, “They have been asking us to display the gear for them.” This could also be an unexpected income surprise for Pacific Asia China Vitality, and a blessing for Chinese coal miners whose lives may be spared, due to this latest know-how transfer to China. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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