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The Great Methane EscapeTo achieve climate neutrality by 2050, Europe must prioritize reducing methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than CO2. In the European power sector, coal mines, both active and abandoned, are the main source of methane emissions. In 2021, EU coal mines emitted 908 thousand tonnes of methane, equal to the annual CO2 emissions of 43 million cars. This surpasses emissions from oil and gas combined. The European Commission must focus on reducing methane emissions from coal mines, especially during and after their operation. However, the current Methane Regulation goal has been weakened, reducing the target from a 70% reduction by 2040 to 34%. The objective of this work is to raise awareness about the socio-environmental impacts of methane emissions from the coal sector and the urgency of reducing these emissions in order to address global warming.
The investigation has been currently conducted in Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Greece, and Spain. The entire project has been granted from the JOURNALISM FUND EUROPE on crisis reporting and has been currently conducted in Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Greece, and Spain. |
Mikolow, Poland Simulation of an explosion at the Santa Barbara Mine Experiment Centre.
Only a few kilograms of coal waste dust are used in the experiment, a tiny percentage compared to what is deposited in an operating tunnel. This type of experiment is used to find solutions for explosions due to methane emissions in mining tunnels. |
Mikolow, Poland Flames operated for the necessary training of miners in the event of a methane leak at the Santa Barbara Experimental Centre in Mikolow.
The mine has been both a coal mine and an experimental centre since 1925. In recent years, one of the main activities of the experimental centre has been the study of methane emissions and methane capture. |
Siemianowice Śląskie, Poland Human tissue reconstructed from placenta cells for reconstructive surgery of burn patients.
Burn Treatment Centre in Siemianowice ?l?skie, a leading centre in Poland dealing with the comprehensive treatment of burns and chronic wounds. The purpose and task of the facility is also to provide rehabilitation after burns, conduct training and research in the field of burns. |
Mikolow, Poland The Experimental Mine "Barbara" in Mikołów is the only research and scientific post in Poland and in Europe, with an experimental range for testing devices, equipment, materials and procedures in real underground conditions.
In the 'Marco' pilot project, researchers tested the possibility of neutralising methane emissions escaping from the ventilation shafts of a coal mine. The innovative catalytic adsorption technology MARCO (Methane Adsorber Regenerative Catalytic Oxydation) enables the capture and re-use of methane as an energy source. |
Makoszowska, Poland Jerzy Hubka: vice-president of the ZZG union at the Makoszowy mine. As a trade unionist he works to create a dialogue between the demands of environmentalists and those of the miners. Between 2014 and 2020 more than 21,000 people lost their jobs in Silesia. In January 2022 Hubka met with activist Greta Thunberg to explain to her the situation of the Makoszowy miners after the closure.
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Torez, Ukraine An illegal mine in the Torez area.
The area is controlled by pro-Russian separatist forces and miners are exempt from recruitment because coal mining remains a priority economic activity. However, safety conditions are practically non-existent and it is common for water tables to flood the underground galleries, threatening the miners' lives. |
Petrovski, Ukraine Anti-atomic shelter in a mining area of the Petrovski area near Donetsk.
Detail of a three-dimensional map of the mine where the shelter is located. At one time these shelters were provided for serious accidents or possible attacks in the Soviet Union, now they house civilians from the surrounding areas who have lost their homes due to bombing. |
Donetsk, Ukraine Detail of a small altar in one of the many buildings used to house families from the bombed areas in the Donbas occupied by pro-Russian separatist forces in Donetsk.
Many of these families depended on the work of the men in the area's coal mines, but with the outbreak of the conflict, mining activities were drastically reduced and made even more dangerous by the bombing. |
Petrila, Romania Period photo of the Petrila miners. Petrila coal mine hit peak production in 1983 when workers extracted 1.2 million tonnes. The mine closed in 2016 and many soon the demolitions works began. Currently the demolitions works are stopped and the former workers are trying to convert the site to a mining museum.down gender barriers and innovation is colored with diversity.
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Petrila, Romania Interior of one of the sections of the abandoned Petrila mine where one of the deep shafts from which one went underground into the main galleries and secondary conduits of the mine is visible. Like many other mines in the country, the channels have been closed with earth and clay, a method that prevents the mine from being reused but does not stop a slow but steady leakage of methane from underground.
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Petrila, Romania Nicu Alexa was part of the miners' rescue team together with his brother when he was caught in one of the strongest explosions in recent years caused by a methane leak in Petrila mine in which his brother, together with other miners, was killed and he was seriously burned and was first in intensive care and then for several months in rehabilitation. He has a wife and two children, continues to work in the Livezeni mine and is very critical of the safety systems in Romanian mines against methane leaks.
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Bucarest, Romania Mihai Emilian Popa, professor at the University of Bucharest, faculty of geology and Geophysics. Specialized in coal geology, paleobotany, palynology, stratigraphy, over the years he has been present at the closure of various mines in the Jiu Valley, the safety of some and their abandonment.
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Petrila, Romania Project for the conversion of an area of the abandoned mine into a SPA posted on a wall of the abandoned mine. Other projects related to tourism and art are posted on the same wall. Projects that, to date, have never been realized. For Romania, the discussion around methane leaks coming from abandoned underground coal mines, or from the last four active ones is new and not so cared for.
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Mieres del Camin, Spain The illuminated areas of this model inside the main headquarters
of the HUNOSA company show a revolutionary solution that has been underway for years in the country for the reconversion of the energy produced by methane in mines closed with the flooding method. The heat produced by methane is channeled and used to heat and refrigerate a hospital (Alvarez Buylla Hospital), an entire neighborhood of the city of Mieres, various government structures and university buildings. An energy system that lasts 365 days a year, 24 hours a day that greatly benefits the community. |
Oviedo, Spain Detail of the machinery used for the measurement and adsorption of
methane in the laboratory of Professor Salvador Ordoñez García at the University of Oviedo, head of the joint project called METHENERGY in collaboration with universities and governments of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland and Romania in which the valorization of methane emissions using technologies such as adsorption, catalytic combustion or partial oxidation reactions (methane to methanol) has been studied for years. |
Mieres del Camin, Spain Rafael Grandal Ramos, HUNOSA technical
employee, portrayed in the pump and control room of “Pozo Barredo”, an underground coal mine. Without mining activity since 1994, it hosted mineral exploration activities until 1997, when it was flooded. The pumped water is used as a source of geothermal energy for the air conditioning of several buildings in the municipality of Mieres del Camin. In this room Rafael controls and manages the quantity; of water and the temperature supplied each day. |
Oviedo, Spain The research group of Professor Salvador Ordoñez García formed by
chemical engineering professors Pablo Marin Gonzalez and Eva Diaz Fernandez and their assistants at work in the laboratory at the University of Oviedo. They have been working for years on the valorization of methane emissions using technologies such as adsorption, catalytic combustion or partial oxidation reactions (methane to methanol) in a joint project called METHENERGY in collaboration with universities and governments of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland and Romania. |
Athens, Greece The Thissio Air Monitoring Station, in operation since 2013, is located at the National Observatory of Athens, in the historic center of the city.
This infrastructure has been continuously upgraded and is currently equipped with specialized high resolution on-line analyzers, such as the Picarro G2301 gas concentration analyzer, providing simultaneous, precise measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) at parts per billion (ppb) and water vapor (H2O) at parts per million (ppm) with negligible drift for atmospheric science, air quality and emission quantification. |
Vasto, Italy Théophile Humann-Guilleminot, Campaign Manager in the Methane Pollution Prevention Team, measures a methane leak with a Flir infrared camera.
The FLIR Gx320, G620 and Gx620 are cooled OGI cameras filtered to detect methane and hydrocarbon emissions from production, transportation and processing facilities in the oil and gas industry. |
Megalopolis, Greece The Lignitiki-Megalopolis power plant, owned by the PCC Group, was scheduled to close in 2023. The company had originally planned to produce electricity from lignite until 2035. However, when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a national coal phase-out in 2028 and lignite production became unprofitable, the company accelerated the closure of the existing lignite-fired plants.
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Megalopolis, Greece Ioannis Binietoglou, Remote Sensing Policy Manager for the Clean Air Task Force, holds ABB's laser-based gas analyzers as he tries to make invisible methane visible by measuring its concentration in the air near the Megalopolis coal mine. His work focuses on exploring ways to use methane remote sensing technologies in national and regional public policy to help reduce methane emissions into the atmosphere. Before joining CATF, Ioannis worked as a remote sensing scientist at public research institutes in Italy, Romania and Greece.
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Megalopolis, Greece ABB's LGR-ICOS gas analyzers build on the heritage and extensive track record of Los Gatos Research analyzers, using patented Off-Axis Integrated Cavity Output Spectroscopy (OA-ICOS) technology, the latest evolution in tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy.
ABB's micro-portable gas analyzer reports measurements of several gases simultaneously, including methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor. |
Megalopolis, Greece Ioannis Binietoglou, Remote Sensing Policy Manager for the Clean Air Task Force, holds the tube connected to ABB's micro-portable gas analyzer, which simultaneously reports measurements of several gases, including methane.
The gas analyzer's tube sucks in air that passes through a laser tuned to a specific frequency. By measuring the amount of light absorbed by the gas, the methane concentration in a given area can be determined. |
Megalopolis, Greece In the town of Megalopoli in the Peloponnese, coal mining is scheduled to cease by 2028.
This map shows what "Megalopolis will look like," with the Greek government committed to transforming the coal field into a tourist attraction, solar farm, and nature parks, even though there is a lack of funds, according to Philippos Tampakopoulos, Megalopoli's deputy mayor. |
Tripotamos, Greece Father Vasileios, 68, priest of Tripotamos, inside the abandoned old church of the village where he used to celebrate Mass.
"There is nothing worse than losing the connection to the place where you were born and grew up," he said. This holy place is not being demolished over the years, but is being left to crumble. |
Tripotamos, Greece Lignite mining began in Megalopoli in the 1970s and became the main economic activity in the absence of a development model that promoted economic diversification and environmental protection. This led to the neglect of other economic activities and, as a result, the dependence of the local community on jobs within or closely related to lignite mining.
In 2014, the Greek government granted the energy company PPC permission to expand the lignite mine, resulting in the demolition of Tripotamos, a small village of 300 houses on the outskirts of Megalopoli. This is what's left of the village. The current plan is to stop mining in 2028, leaving the villages and their inhabitants as useless victims. |
Tripotamos, Greece Lignite mining began in Megalopoli in the 1970s and became the main economic activity in the absence of a development model that promoted economic diversification and environmental protection. This led to the neglect of other economic activities and, as a result, the dependence of the local community on jobs within or closely related to lignite mining.
In 2014, the Greek government granted the energy company PPC permission to expand the lignite mine, resulting in the demolition of Tripotamos, a small village of 300 houses on the outskirts of Megalopoli. This is what's left of the village. The current plan is to stop mining in 2028, leaving the villages and their inhabitants as useless victims. |
Tripotamos, Greece The coal field of Megalopoli. Lignite mining began in Megalopoli in the 1970s and became the main economic activity.
In the prefecture of Arcadia, the lignite sector generates 50% of the jobs and 64% of the gross value added in the energy sector in the Peloponnese region. This translates into 1,600 direct jobs, which increases to 3,100 jobs when the entire lignite value chain is taken into account. It is tentatively planned to cease mining activities in 2028, which, in relation to the approved mining plan, implies a reduction of lignite mining with the future formation of tailings dumps at lower elevations, the formation of artificial lakes, and also the creation of new housing developments. |
