Remote sensing satellites have detected one of the largest emissions of methane from a single industrial site, an underground coal mine in south-central Russia. This finding is another sign of a range of problems that curb emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane.
The Raspadskya mine, Russia’s largest coal mine, in late January, GHGSat, Commercial emission monitoring company. The total flow from all plumes was estimated to be about 87 metric tons (about 95 US tons) per hour.
“This is the largest source we have ever seen,” said Brody Wight, head of energy, landfills and mines at GHG Sat, which was founded in 2011 and now has six radiation detection satellites. I am saying. In contrast, the maximum speed measured at Aliso Canyon, a natural gas storage facility in Southern California, was about 60 metric tons per hour with major leaks for almost four months in 2015 and 2016. ..
“This is a really big fish,” said Felix Vogel, a research scientist at the Environment and Climate Change Canada in Toronto, which is not affiliated with GHG Sat.
Mr. Wight said he did not know how long the release would last at this rate in the mine. However, some previous satellite paths have detected tens of tonnes of emissions per hour. “The gains from the entire site are increasing fairly steadily,” he said.
Given a continuous flow of 87 metric tons of methane per hour, the company said total annual emissions would correspond to emissions from an average of five coal-fired power plants.
Wight said the release is probably intentional, as the Ruspadski mine, like any other coal mine, has naturally occurring methane-rich pockets in the coal seams. The accumulation of methane in the mine in 2010 caused an explosion that killed 66 people.
To reduce the concentration of methane, a large fan draws air into the mine, passes it through the mine, and ventilates the methane into the atmosphere.
Methane has a greater impact on global warming than carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by human activity. Over 20 years, methane can cause about 80 times the warming of the same amount of carbon dioxide.
Methane emissions are much lower than carbon dioxide emissions, and molecules break down much more rapidly. However, due to the warming factor of methane, reducing the intentional or accidental emissions of gas is seen as a faster way to limit global warming in this century.
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At the global climate negotiations in Glasgow last fall, more than 100 countries promised to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030, including Russia and other large-scale emitters. It wasn’t.
Until recently, ground or airplane equipment had to be used to accurately measure emissions from specific industrial sites such as mines, oil and gas production facilities, and landfills. This limited the number of sites that could be investigated.
Ground and air detection is still in place, but satellites can now easily monitor much larger areas. Most of these satellites have relatively coarse resolution, but can detect the same amount of gas or more as measured in Russian mines at a particular location, but identify emissions. It is not possible to narrow down to the location of. The GHGSat satellite is one of a new generation with much higher resolution.
“We have a tool to get practical information,” Dr. Vogel said of these new satellites.
“They allow you to actually go down to the scale of the facility and see certain parts of the facility where emissions are occurring,” he said. “You can tell the company where to go to fix something.”