Progress in developing an innovative lean burn catalytic turbine technology for fugitive methane mitigation and utilization

Abstract

Approximately 2.8 × 10¹⁰ m³ of methane is emitted per year to the atmosphere from coal mining activities around the world. Mitigation and utilization of the fugitive coal mine methane is very difficult because its concentration is very low and varies from 0.1% to1%, and the methane is contained in a large air flow rate of 150–400 m³/s. This paper overviews existing and developing technologies for the mitigation and utilization of the fugitive mine methane, and then presents research progress in developing an innovative lean burn catalytic turbine technology for fugitive methane mitigation and utilization. This turbine system can be powered with about 1% methane in air.

Key words： coal mine methane; mitigation and utilization; lean burn gas turbine; catalytic combustion

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Department of Climate Change’s Bilateral Climate Change Partnership Program between Australia and China, along with the support from an Australia-China special fund grant under the Australian Government International Science Linkage Program. We also would like to acknowledge the support from Huainan Coal Mining (Group) Co. Ltd. on the site trials of the VAMCAT unit. Special thanks are due to a number of Chinese researchers and engineers for their contributions including Prof. Yiwu Weng, Prof. Hanping Chen, and Prof. Liang Yuan.

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