China should prioritize coalbed gas exploitation
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E-mail Xinhua, October 8, 2012
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Coalbed gas is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. [File photo] |
China should give priority to the exploitation of coalbed gas rather than shale gas, an energy expert has suggested.
Coalbed gas exploitation is a more urgent initiative to follow, to save energy resources and ease air pollution, said Pan Wei'er, deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of China Zhigong Party Central Committee, in an article published in China Economic Weekly.
Pan said, technically and financially, coalbed gas extraction is more feasible than that of shale gas.
According to Pan, China's annual coal output has already exceeded three billion tonnes, allowing for some 20 billion cubic meters of coalbed gas into the air every year. If all this wasted gas was used, it would match the annual generation of the Three-Gorges Dam, which is world's top hydropower station.
coalbed gas, non-conventional natural gas lying in coal seam, can rapidly dissipate once a colliery is exploited.
Pan said more coalbed gas is being wasted because China's coal output keeps increasing by 200 million tonnes every year.
However, shale gas lies in shale, which makes it harder to lose provided the shale has not been exploited.
"Coalbed gas extraction is of greater urgency," Pan noted in the article. "The reason is that we may not exploit shale gas over the coming decades, but there is little possibility that we do not mine coal."
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