Abstract

MARINO-MARTINEZ, Jorge Eliecer; CHANCI-BEDOYA, Rubén Darío  and  ORJUELA-GARCIA, Ángela María. Methane emissions from underground coal mining in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense (Colombia). Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2021, vol.45, n.176, pp.864-874.  Epub Feb 04, 2022. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.1372.

As a result of the Paris Agreement on climate change, Colombia is committed to measuring and reporting emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), among them, coal mining fugitive emissions. The country has been reporting emissions based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) level 1 international tables, but here we propose to do so based on the level 2 coal bed methane (CBM) exploration using canisters desorption systems. We reviewed the contents for the Altiplano Cundiboyacense based on the CBM international tables and studies and we found that level 1 coal emissions (61.62 Gg of methane) exceeded the contents found in the direct level 2 measurements (16.47 Gg of methane) by more than 300%. The equivalent emission levels in CO2 tons were found to be 1,540,500 and 411,750 tons, respectively. Given that the methane gas contents associated with coal in Colombian basins are not so high compared to those of the main coal-producing countries, emissions from coal extraction in the country were lower than those calculated with the international emissions factors. Therefore, as long as the emissions are not measured directly in the ventilation, CBM exploration studies should be used for their report because their calculation based on international tables renders more GHG emissions associated with coal mining than those actually generated.

Keywords : Fugitive emissions; Coal; Methane; Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Colombia.

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