When coal seams are degassed in advance, pure methane is extracted - the content of CH4 is 97.41% (based on laboratory tests). This suggests the possibility of efficient utilization of produced methane without costly preliminary preparation.
Utilization of associated methane is a long-standing environmental problem. And now it is attracting more and more attention because in all the oil and coal deposits of the world, a total of 150 billion cubic meters of gas are being wasted or emitted into the atmosphere per year.
Methane emitted into the atmosphere can be effectively used due to its unique characteristics:
- Every 1000 m3 of methane in heat of combustion save 1.3–1.5 tons of coal
- The price of motor fuel from methane is 15–20% lower than the price of traditional fuel
- Using 1 m3 allows to generate 3.1-3.3 kW ∙ h of electricity
There are two main areas of processing and use of coal bed methane.
- generation of heat energy (boiler houses, heating and power plants);
- generation of electrical energy (mobile gas power plants);
- motor fuel for vehicles, in compressed or in cryogenic (liquefied) state.
- direct conversion of methane into the required products due to the production of chlorine-substituted methane - chlorine-methyl, methylene chloride, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and a number of other products, as well as nitromethane;
- staged conversion of methane through the production of synthesis gas, which is the primary product of methane processing. Methanol, synthetic gasoline, diesel fuel, dimethyl ether and other chemical products that are necessary for the production of polymers are obtained from syngas.
Our company offers the following options for utilization of coal methane.
Methanol
An option to use a mobile unit for the conversion of coal methane to methanol is developed and already used in industrial scale by a group of Russian engineers from Perm, together with the Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The technology and the device created on its basis (optionally autonomous) in block-modular design allows for the complete utilization of raw gas materials at the fields in small and ultra-small volumes (up to 9 million cubic meters of gas per year).
On the basis of preliminary calculations, the design of installation for converting coal bed methane to methanol, described in the feasibility study, is cost-effective and most promising. And the construction of a conversion unit carried out at the stage of R & D, according to the RF PP dated 12/24/2008 N 988 (as amended on 06.02.2012), is also included in other expenses in the amount of actual costs with a factor of 1.5 and the additional part of the income will be a ground for reduction in payments for emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.
Conversion to methanol has the following advantages:
- Methanol is a liquid that makes it easy to transport and store
- There are no emissions of sulfur and sulfur compounds in the production process.
- Low carbon emissions for MMBTU
- Methanol prices today are unrelated to crude oil and natural gas prices due to an alternative cost baseline.
- Current demand for methanol is dictated by the chemicals market, not the energy markets.
- Methanol is in demand for sale in the chemical and energy markets.
