Singh Ajay K, Singh Udayan, Panigrahi Durga C, Singh Jayant
PMRC Private Limited, Dhanbad 826004, India.
Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
iScience. 2022 Aug 15;25(9):104946. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104946. eCollection 2022 Sep 16.
Underground coal mining has been known as a significant source of fugitive greenhouse gas emissions. Past analyses of these emissions in India used deterministic emission factors and predominantly focused on methane emissions with reporting of CO emissions remaining limited to a few sites. This study addresses these gaps via field measurements on 108 underground mines (out of a total 338) to evolve greenhouse gas reporting in this sector. Results show large heterogeneity across "degrees" of mines as categorized by the Indian government. In addition, CO emissions are found to be significant in shallower mines of lower gassiness. Overall, the emissions from underground mining have reduced from 2.6 to 8.3 Mt-COe to 1.3-3.6 Mt-COe during 1980-2019. These emissions might remain significant by 2050 under a 2-2.5°C constraint or may decline below 100,000 t-COe under a 1.5°C constraint. We also discuss several generalizable outcomes and approaches to make inventories in this sector more robust.
地下煤矿开采一直被认为是温室气体无组织排放的重要来源。过去对印度这些排放的分析使用确定性排放因子，并且主要关注甲烷排放，而一氧化碳排放的报告仅限于少数几个地点。本研究通过对108个地下煤矿（总共338个）进行实地测量来填补这些空白，以改进该部门的温室气体报告。结果表明，按照印度政府的分类，不同“等级”的煤矿存在很大差异。此外，在瓦斯含量较低的较浅煤矿中，一氧化碳排放也很显著。总体而言，1980年至2019年期间，地下开采的排放量从260万至830万吨二氧化碳当量降至130万至360万吨二氧化碳当量。在2至2.5摄氏度的限制条件下，到2050年这些排放可能仍然很大；而在1.5摄氏度的限制条件下，排放量可能会降至10万吨二氧化碳当量以下。我们还讨论了一些可推广的成果和方法，以使该部门的排放清单更加可靠。
