Methane emissions from coal open pits in Colombia

Abstract

From the agreements on climate change Colombia is committed to measuring and reporting emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and among these, the coal mining fugitive emissions. The country has been reporting emissions from international tables-Level 1 of the IPCC, but this proposal is suggesting doing so from exploration of CBM-Level 2 using canisters desorption systems. For the Colombia open pit mining (provinces of Guajira and Cesar) the analyses from international tables and from CBM studies found that emissions from tables-Level 1 (106.02 Gg of methane) exceed the content found in direct measurements-Level 2 (75.92 Gg of methane) in 40%. The levels of emissions in tons of CO2 equivalent are 2.226.420 and 1.594.320 tons respectively. These results show that since the contents of methane of Colombian coal beds are lower compared with main coal-producing countries, the fugitive emissions from the extraction of coal in Colombia should be calculated from CBM studies.

Keywords

• fugitive emissions
• coal
• methane
• Cesar
• Guajira
• Colombia