Corporate Social Responsibility of the BHP Billiton Mining Group

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World's first electric power plant to use coal mine ventilation air as fuel

Methane (CH4) is a naturally occurring gaseous compound and is the *natural gas’ used globally as a fuel both for industry and in people’s homes. One of the places it occurs is associated with underground coal deposits and when the coal is mined the methane is released. Methane gas has been a major source of hazard to coal miners since coal became the energy source for the industrial revolution. Methane is both flammable and explosive and methane gas explosions in coal mines still kill thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of coal mine workers in China to this day.
In most other parts of the world, strict safety regulations are enforced to ensure that coal mines are properly ventilated, thus preventing dangerous concentrations of methane to exist in the working areas. This is done by blowing fresh air from the surface, through the mine galleries and venting the air plus methane mixture back out, into the environment.
Until recently, this practice was considered acceptable both from the safety and environmental perspective. However, with the onset of the climate-change problem facing our world, new thinking and new practices are required. Fires and explosions are not the only hazards posed by methane. It is also a very potent greenhouse gas: in fact molecule for molecule, it has 21 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO2)! So, simply blowing methane gas out from coal mines into our small and vulnerable atmosphere is no longer the smart thing to do. In addition, as is stated at the beginning, methane is a valuable energy source so venting to atmosphere is becoming an increasingly unacceptable waste of a valuable resource.
In order for practices to change, however, there needs to be, on the one hand, an economic and regulatory framework which stimulates the required research and development and encourages the investment of capital in the necessary plant and equipment. On the other hand, there needs to be responsible corporations with the vision to see how they can deliver a sustainable solution. Such a combination has come about with the government of New South Wales, Australia, the world’s largest mining and natural resources companyÂÍÐ Billiton and its technology supplier MEGTEC Systems.
The opportunity
In September 2007, ÂÍÐ Billiton officially opened its West CliffVentilation Air Methane Project (WestVAMP) - a world first greenhouse gas reduction initiative. Situated at BHPB’s Illawarra Coal’s West Cliff Mine in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, the project is the first realisation of commercial power generation solely from the dilute methane in coal mine ventilation air conditioning exhaust. It follows seven years of R&D collaboration with Swedish emission control specialists, MEGTEC Systems AB.
The methane capture and electricity generating plant, costing A$30 million, generates around six megawatts of electricity per hour and reduces greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions by 250,000 tonnes of C02-equivalent per year.
The project was assisted by a A$6 million contribution from the Australian Greenhouse Office GHG Abatement Programme and the electricity generated goes into the NSW grid system. The Premier of NSW, the Honourable Morris lemma, in inaugurating the new plant said, This facility will make a significant con-tribrution to ghg reduction in NSW and I applaud the ingenuity of ÂÍÐ Billiton and its technology providers MEGTEC Sytems.’
The ghg emission reductions are used to claim carbon credits, created under the Kyoto Protocol and the federal government of Australia’s ratification of the Protocol.
The technological development The concentration of methane in the vent exhaust, around 1 per cent by volume, posed a real challenge as it is below that at which the gas will bum in conventional systems.
ÂÍÐ Billiton worked with MEGTEC from 2001 to adapt and refine a flameless oxidation process which releases thermal energy from the oxidation of the methane, as conventional burning would do. That heat is then used to produce steam which in turn drives turbines which generate electricity in the usual way.

Case study 2 (cont.)
In one integrated system the mine extracts the hazardous methane from the mine workers making the air in the mine safe for the miners, prevents harmful ghg with a potency 21 times that of C02 being discharged to our atmosphere and lastly turns that hazardous ghg into electricity.
Future potential
The President of Illawarra Coal, Mr Colin Bloomfield, says the plant could be modularised and scaled up to improve its commercial attractiveness. The current plant treats 20 per cent of the total vent exhaust so potential exists to similarly treat the other 80 per cent.
Then there are the other underground coal operations of ÂÍÐ Billiton and the other coal operations for the global mining corporations.
Then there is the prospect of helping underground coal mining in the developing world; China, India, Columbia, etc. through public/private partnerships of one kind or another to install these systems with their four-way winning formulae: safer, less polluting, more energy and production efficient.Recognising the significance of the MEGTEC system for treating ventilation air/methane emissions, as well as the actual results of the WestVAMP plant, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) on 19 May 2008 named MEGTEC one of its Climate Protection Award Winners. ‘Efforts like this to help fight climate change will benefit the planet for generations to come’, said Bob Meyers of the US EPA.
Cases like this show clearly that determined team work between companies which are prepared to show corporate responsibility, regulatory authorities who have the power and intelligence to create constructive legal frameworks and technology development organisations with the necessary ingenuity can produce breakthrough solutions. The challenge then is to get wide and rapid take up.
Questions
1 Review the steps taken to capitalise on this opportunity.
2 Examine the extent to which different interests, economic and environmental, are balanced.