May 21 2008
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on May 19th presented its Climate Protection Award to MEGTEC Systems, owned by U.S.-based SEQUA Corp., in recognition of MEGTEC's patented technology that enables coal mine ventilation air methane (VAM) to be used as a primary energy-producing source.
Accepting the award for MEGTEC were Mohit Uberoi, Lars Sundback, Ake Kallstrand and Richard Mattus, in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Climate Protection Award recipients are selected by the EPA from finalists chosen by an international advisory panel of judges representing government, industry and non-governmental organizations.
“Efforts to help fight climate change will benefit the planet for generations to come,” stated Bob Meyers, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Air & Radiation.
“We are honored and delighted for the recognition and appreciation shown by presenting MEGTEC with this highly respected award,” said Uberoi, MEGTEC Systems President. “By bringing forward new technology to reduce methane emissions, we are proud to be part of the global climate protection solution.”
Richard Mattus, Business Manager responsible for the VAM project at MEGTEC, noted that “This award is a tribute to the dedication as well as the expertise of MEGTEC employees. And the success of our installations shows that, going forward, this technology can have considerable impact. A single installation can reduce emissions corresponding to one million tons of CO2 equivalents, which has the same impact on Global Warming as taking up to half a million cars off the roads.”
Coal mines are significant sources of methane emissions, noted the EPA in its award summary, and it is over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Most of these emissions, however, are found in the ventilation air where they, for mine safety reasons, have been extensively diluted by air to a less-than-1% methane concentration. This poses special challenges to design technically and economically viable systems to convert this greenhouse gas to usable energy.
WestVAMP in Australia: world’s first installation to fully apply VAM technology.
MEGTEC’s ground-breaking system, the VOCSIDIZER, is currently the world’s only officially proven and commercially viable technology to abate these emissions. It uses flameless, thermal oxidation to destroy methane in ventilation air, heating and converting it to water vapour and carbon dioxide, a gas with a significantly smaller climate impact. The heat generated by the process can be used directly in mining operations such as coal drying, or to generate electricity.
For more than a year, at West Cliff Colliery, BHP Billiton, Australia, four VOCSIDIZERs have been converting the energy of the coal mine’s 0.9% VAM concentration into high grade, superheated steam that operates a 6 MW (Megawatt) conventional steam turbine. Electricity generated by the plant is fed into the local area power grid. During the first year of operation, this special power plant has also generated 250,000 tons of carbon credits, traded on a local Australian trading scheme.