Killer gas to become beneficial
By Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-01 05:47

A killer responsible for thousands of deaths could become a force for good, if a new government policy has its desired effect.

Highly flammable methane gas, to blame for countless coal mine blasts across the country, is to be tapped as a new energy resource, a senior energy official said recently.

Coal mine operators will be encouraged to exploit the gas with a raft of policies, such as tax exemption and favourable pricing, said Wu Yin, an inspector at the Energy Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Wu made the remarks at the First International Conference on Coal Mine Gas Control and Utilization in Beijing, which closed at the weekend.

"Such policies are very preferential, so they should encourage coal mine companies at home and abroad to participate in the campaign as soon as possible," said Wu, who is also the office director of the Inter-Ministerial Co-ordination and Guidance Group for Coal Mine Gas Control.

China is rich in coal mine gas resources. It is estimated there are approximately 31 trillion cubic metres distributed across the country.

Regarded as a deadly killer, claiming the lives of 6,000 miners each year, methane, or coal gas as it is also known, is an explosive hazard, said Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

"In major mining accidents, 80 per cent of deaths are related to gas," he said.

For miners' safety, in the past the gas was pumped out of mine shafts and discharged. As a result, hundreds of millions of cubic metres of gas are lost every year.

Now China is learning from foreign experience how to harness and utilize its power.

"Gas drainage before mining will increase the use of coal mine gas as well as reducing accidents," said Jie Mingxun, from the China United Coalbed Methame Co Ltd.

Annual coal mine gas production could soon reach 3-4 billion cubic metres through surface drilling and underground drainage, if technical innovations, preferential policies and more investment are followed through, he said.

The Pansan Coal Mine, located on the Huaihe River, began generating power using coal gas earlier this year.

Though the power plant's capacity is currently only a relatively meagre 2,400 kilowatts, it is one of the few plants in the country using coal gas to generate electricity, Xinhua reported.

Wang Yuan, board chairman of the Huainan Mining Group in Anhui Province, said that gas is now the main fuel for some 20,000 households in the mining area.

More importantly, he said, exploiting the gas has improved both safety and profitability.

The mine's death toll, measured in deaths per million tons of coal produced, has decreased tenfold in the past three years, while coal output has increased threefold.

Major mining companies including Pingdingshan in Henan Province, Jincheng Coal Mine Group in Shanxi Province, Kailuan in North China's Hebei Province and Tiefa in Liaoning Province are all making comprehensive use of the gas, reports said.

(China Daily 11/01/2005 page3)