From 16 to 19 October 2023, staff from the Upper Silesia Branch of PGI-PIB were in Bucharest, where they attended the REM project partners' meeting and the 11th REM project.

International Symposium on Occupational Health and Safety organized by the National Institute for Research and Development of Mines in the field of Safety and Explosion Protection - INSEMEX Petrosani.

Meetings of the international consortium implementing the project entitled "Reduction of methane emissions from post mining goafs to minimise their inflow into VAM (REM)", co-financed by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) of the European Union and the Ministry of Education and Science, is held periodically to discuss and coordinate the work carried out by the project partners, i.e. Central Mining Institute - PIB (consortium leader), Oil and Gas Institute - PIB, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa S.A., Polish Geological Institute - PIB, Universidad de Oviedo UNIOVI (Spain) and Institutului Naţional de Cercetare-Dezvoltare pentru Securitate Minieră şi Protecţie Antiexplozivă - INSEMEX Petroşani (Romania). Representatives of the European Commission also attend the meetings.

The Polish Geological Institute - PIB was represented by the staff of the Upper Silesian Branch: Director dr Janusz Jureczka, Katarzyna Strzemińska, Grzegorz Suszka and Jerzy Hadro, who gave a presentation on the progress of work in the REM project carried out at the Upper Silesian Branch in Sosnowiec.

Meeting of representatives of the REM project consortium - presentation by Jerzy Hadro from the Upper Silesian Branch of PGI-PIB

The REM project is a pilot project to build an 'intelligent' system to manage the exploitation of AMM (Abandoned Mine Methane) gas with low methane concentrations.

The demonstration installation made as part of the project will be built at the Pniówek coal mine. It will include a network of underground pipelines and a state-of-the-art de-methanation station with specially designed gas engines capable of using gas with a methane content of between 25-30%. The overarching goal of the project is to reduce methane emissions into the atmosphere.

Currently, gas with a low methane content (less than 30%) is emitted into the atmosphere through mine ventilation shafts, as dictated by health and safety regulations. A mixture of air and methane is an explosive mixture, especially when the methane concentration falls below 15%. Reducing methane emissions from mines during their exploitation and decommissioning phases is a key issue for the sustainable and intelligent management of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union.

The meeting of the REM project consortium partners was crowned with the international 11. Health and Safety Symposium organised by the National Institute for Research and Development of Mines in the field of Safety and Explosion Protection - INSEMEX Petrosani. This symposium is a regular event. It was organised with the support and cooperation of Petroigo University, the Labour Inspectorate and under the patronage of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalisation of Romania.

Topics of the Symposium included mining and industrial ventilation, mine closures, environmental protection, pollution prevention, reduction and control.

From the PGI-PIB website, a paper entitled: "Abandoned Mine Methane Development of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in the Light of the New EU Regulation on Methane Emission Reduction in the Energy Sector" was delivered by Jerzy Hadro. The paper outlines a methodology for estimating AMM resources under the conditions of Polish hard coal deposits, as well as providing an overview of the restrictions and limitations resulting from the entry into force of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the limitation of methane emissions in the energy sector, which applies, inter alia, directly to coal mines - underground (active and closed) and open-cast mines, and which will significantly reduce the potential for methane emissions, particularly from hard coal mines.

Occupational Health and Safety Symposium - PGI-PIB presentation given by Jerzy Hadro

Text: Grzegorz Suszka,
Photos: Grzegorz Suszka, Katarzyna Strzemińska