Geologists from the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences have proposed using closed coal mines to extract methane. When mines are flooded, gas is forced to the surface, which creates risks but also opens up new opportunities.
Ilya Rybin, a senior researcher at the SSC RAS, believes that coal gas extraction can solve two problems. Firstly, it can provide clean fuel or electricity to the settlements around the mines. Secondly, it can create jobs for former miners.
Organizing the extraction of coal gas will provide clean fuel or electricity to all settlements around closed gas-rich coal mines and create jobs for former miners.
In the Eastern Donbass, up to 100 million m³ of coal gas can be extracted annually. The density of methane resources here is 125 million m³/km². For comparison, in the Pechora basin, this figure is 1.5 times higher, and in the Kuznetsk basin, it is 3–10 times higher, but the risks of gas contamination of buildings are also high due to geological features.
The main danger today is not so much gas contamination as the release of mine water to the surface. Highly mineralized water can pollute the hydro network, which requires additional protection measures.
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