MEGTEC Systems announced today that it will build the world’s largest methane abatement system to capture and eliminate ventilation air methane (VAM) from the Datong coal mine in China’s Chongqing municipality. The project could generate carbon offset credits (CER) for the company as well.
The system, which will go online later this year, will eliminate 97 percent of the methane within the captured exhaust stream before it enters the atmosphere. The system is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 200,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per year. In addition, energy released in the process will be used to heat water for nearby buildings.
China is the largest VAM emission country in the world. Currently, 70 percent of its energy and nearly 80 percent of its electricity stems from coal.
The project has the potential to generate carbon offset credits. Emissions reduction projects that involve the transfer of technology to an emerging market (China) and are developed under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) can be considered for CER credits.
The project represents an agreement between MEGTEC and a three-way joint venture partnership comprised of AES Climate Solutions Asia (a wholly-owned subsidiary of AES Corporation), Shenzhen Dongjiang Environmental Renewable Power Company Ltd., and Songzao Coal and Chongqing Electricity Company Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chongqing Energy Investment Group.
MEGTEC’s patented VAM technology also earned the company an EPA Climate Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2008, in recognition of its systems’ ability to turn greenhouse gas into green energy.
Recently, Consol Energy announced it would be building a similar methane abatement project in West Virginia that would produce CERs.
