China-Japan Green Aid Project (GAP) "Tiefa Coal Mine Area Methane  Recovery and Utilization Demonstration Project" Completed in Success

The China-Japan Green Aid Project (GAP) "Tiefa Coal Mine Area Mine Methane Recovery and Utilization Demonstration Project" completion ceremony was held in Tiefa Coal Group, Liaoning Province on October 19, 2002. 

Started in 1992, the Green Aid Project is an inter-governmental cooperative project between the Chinese government and the Japanese government. Content of this project is that the Japanese side is to provide equipment and the Chinese side is to produce supporting funds to carry out energy saving and environmental protection demonstration projects in China. Till now, a total of 36 green Aid projects are under way and the "Tiefa Coal Mine Area Mine Methane Recovery and Utilization Demonstration Project" is one of these projects. Implemented by Tiefa Coal Group Co Ltd, this project lasted for five year from 1999 ~ 2002. This project aims at improving the mine methane drainage and extraction systems at coal mines to ensure improved work safety in coal mines, increased productivity, mitigated GHG emission and effective use of cleaner energy so as to contribute to the mitigation of global warming. 

Involving total investments from both Chinese and Japanese sides of more than 92.0 million Chinese yuan, this project achieved a complete coal mine methane drainage and extraction system and part of a surface methane distribution and transmission system. Work covered by this project includes underground methane drainage and extraction project such as bore-hole drilling, methane drainage and extraction, centralized monitoring and sealing system. Work done on the surface includes dry type spherical medium-pressure gas tank, heating value regulating installation, methane compressor and part of pipeline. This project also includes the following technical innovations: a successful application of methane extraction technique employing oblique crossing long bore-holes and the application of underground gob area sealing technique utilizing fly-ash discharged by power plants. A fully mechanized longwall face in Daxing coal mine was selected by this project for the related trial operation and the result is so successful in that an annual total methane production of 4.098 million m3 was realized, thus creating economic profit of about 3.0 million Chinese yuan. The designed capacity of methane transmission and distribution system of this project is sufficient to supply methane fuel to the total of 165,000 residents in that area including Tieling city. 

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