Kirchgessner D A, Piccot S D, Masemore S S
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.
J Air Waste Manag Assoc. 2000 Nov;50(11):1904-19. doi: 10.1080/10473289.2000.10464227.
Past efforts to estimate methane emissions from underground mines, surface mines, and other coal mine operations have been hampered, to different degrees, by a lack of direct emissions data. Direct measurements have been completely unavailable for several important coal mining operations. A primary goal of this study was to collect new methane emissions measurements and other data for the most poorly characterized mining operations and use these data to develop an improved methane emission inventory for the U.S. coal mining industry. This required the development and verification of measurement methods for surface mines, coal handling operations, and abandoned underground mines and the use of these methods at about 30 mining sites across the United States. Although the study's focus was on surface mines, abandoned underground mines, and coal handling operations, evaluations were also conducted to improve our understanding of underground mine emission trends and to develop improved national data sets of coal properties. Total U.S. methane emissions are estimated to be 4.669 million tons, and as expected, emissions from underground mine ventilation and methane drainage systems dominate (74% of the total emissions). On the other hand, emissions from coal handling, abandoned underground mines, and surface mines are significant, and collectively they represent approximately 26% of the total emissions.
过去对地下煤矿、露天煤矿及其他煤矿作业的甲烷排放量进行估算的努力，在不同程度上受到了缺乏直接排放数据的阻碍。对于一些重要的煤矿作业，完全没有直接测量数据。本研究的一个主要目标是收集关于特征描述最不完善的采矿作业的新的甲烷排放测量数据及其他数据，并利用这些数据为美国煤矿行业编制一份改进后的甲烷排放清单。这需要开发和验证用于露天煤矿、煤炭处理作业及废弃地下煤矿的测量方法，并在美国约30个采矿地点使用这些方法。尽管该研究的重点是露天煤矿、废弃地下煤矿及煤炭处理作业，但也进行了评估，以增进我们对地下煤矿排放趋势的了解，并编制改进后的全国煤炭特性数据集。据估计，美国甲烷排放总量为466.9万吨，正如预期的那样，地下煤矿通风和甲烷排水系统的排放占主导地位（占总排放量的74%）。另一方面，煤炭处理、废弃地下煤矿及露天煤矿的排放也很可观，它们合计约占总排放量的26%。
