Poison Gases Hamper Mine Rescue

I bow my head for a moment of silence in condolence for the fallen miners. May their souls rest in everlasting peace. Amen.

1 cubic ft of methane contains appx 1000 BTU's. So 2×(10ˆ6)×(10ˆ3) = 2×(10ˆ9), right? Now, this seems to be a multiple of 24 hours, so just multiply it accordingly and you will have your numbers.

As for economic feasibility, your input must be MUCH more detailed.

Seems like and amazing quantity, 78,000,000 joules or 2,000,000,000 btus.

The mind is working overtime on harvesting this wasted methane which is about 87% of the makeup of natural gas.

After 10 years in the underground coal mines, I called it quits. I saw a number of my friends hurt and one killed. It is a dangerous job. No matter how much you train and no matter how good your safety procedures, nobody can guarantee how the roof or ribs are going to act. If it is your time, and you are in the wrong place, there is nothing you can do.

Some coal mines do "harvest" the methane. However, this is not an easy or cheap task. It takes a great amount of coordination, since you have to harvest it in front of where you are mining, so that when you get to that section, the methane has been removed. The problem with this method is that it is expensive to drill into the coal seam, especially in deep coal seams. There have been some studies looking into methods of collecting the methane at the exhaust, but I have not heard of anything very promising.

With all of the work I am seeing and involved with right now in The Marcellus Shale, the methods must be close to economically feasible.

Consol Energy just bought all of Dominion-People's Natural Gas Exploration and Development division, so I bet something is on the horizon.

A huge coal company and one of the largest E & Ps in the area.

Google "coal gas" or "gob gas" for more information.

The gas is generally considered "low-btu" gas...but can be collected to run small a small diesel generating plant.

The methane content the gas can run 30-80% (~300-800 BTU/scf)

China has set up minemouth powerplants to run on this gas.

The USEPA has publications on thier website on how to properly deal with this dangerous gas. These publications are frequently accessed by those in the third world