Combined use of coal mine gases for efficient energy generation

Abstract

There are two basic types of coal mine gases: gas from demethanation of coal deposits, and ventilation gas; containing combustible ingredients (mainly methane, CH4). Effective use of these gases is an important technical and ecological issue (greenhouse gas emissions), mainly due to the presence of methane in these gases. Serious difficulties in this area (e.g. using them as the fuel for internal combustion (IC) engine) occur mainly in relation to the ventilation gas, whereas the gas from demethanation of coal deposits can be used directly as the fuel for internal combustion engines. The proposed solution of this problem shows that the simple mixing of these two gases (without supplying of oxygen from ambient air) is the effective way to producing the gaseous combustible mixture, which can be used for the fueling of internal combustion gas engines. To evaluate the energy usefulness of this way produced combustible mixture the process indicator has been proposed, which expresses the share of the chemical energy supplied with the ventilation gas, in the whole chemical energy of the produced fuel combustible mixture. It was also established how (e.g., by appropriate choice of the mixed gas streams) can be achieved significantly higher values of the characteristic process indicator, while retaining full energy usefulness of the gained gaseous mixture to power combustion engines.