Long Beach, CA — SCS Energy, the energy services group of SCS Engineers, has been selected to provide technical services for a planned 120 MW power plant to be fueled on coal bed methane (CBM)/coal mine methane (CMM). This project is being developed by Shanxi Jincheng Anthracite Coal Mining Group Company, Limited, in the People’s Republic of China.
Under this multi-year, half-million dollar assignment, SCS Energy will assist the mine in: 1) the development of a conceptual design for an optimal power plant configuration; 2) the preparation of bidding documents; 3) the evaluation of bids received; and 4) the supervision and monitoring of the construction, commissioning and initial operation of the power plant. The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is funding this assignment.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) estimates that eight percent of the world’s anthropogenic (human activity-related) methane emissions are from coal mining. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. In fact, methane is about 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide on a pound-per-pound basis. Capture of methane emissions from coal mining operations, and its conversion to useful energy, results in three benefits: 1) recovering wasted energy; 2) reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; and 3) improvement of air quality in the region.
