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| (1)Coal Resource Exploration |
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Many developing countries have not fully explored their own coal resources
and still have massive development potential. However, it is currently too
risky for foreign private companies to venture into such countries and
develop the resources independently. Therefore, JCOAL commissioned by
the New Energy and Industrial Development Organization (NEDO), carries
out coal resource exploration as government to goverment projects to help
develop coal resources in the target countries as well as to ensure a stable
supply of coal to Japan.
Specifically, we conduct geological surface survey
and mapping, drilling exploration, geophysical explorations and other
surveys to determine the geological structure,coal reserves and coal quality
in the target areas. The various data obtained through the surveys are
compiled into a database and also used for mine planning.
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| (2)Development of Coal Production and Safety Technologies |
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In coal-producing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, underground mines
have become ever deeper to produce more coal, which adversely affects the
natural environment. As a result, these countries are now facing diverse
technical challenges. To achieve a stable supply of coal to Japan, which is
the world’s top coal importer, JCOAL promotes the development, transfer
and dissemination of coal production and safety technologies to meet the
specific requirements of each overseas coal mine based on the expertise
accumulated in domestic coal mines.
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| (3)Collection of Information about Coal Resources and Technologies |
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To establish a foundation for the development of overseas coal
mines and a stable coal supply to in Japan, JCOAL collects
information on the coal situation in overseas coal-producing
countries, such as the coal export potential, infrastructure, trend
of developing coal production and safety technologies, and
techniques for developing unconventional coal resources (such
as coal bed methane (CBM), coal mine methane (CMM) and
underground coal gasification (UCG)). JCOAL also reports on
the progress of development of these technologies in
conferences both within and outside of Japan to keep coal
specialists informed of the achievements.
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| (4)Development of Unconventional Coal Resources |
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Coal beds contain methane gas (as coal bed methane (CBM) or coal mine
methane (CMM)), which has now come to be exploited and used
throughout the world. Particularly China, U.S.A. and Australia and some
other countries are actively working on CBM/CMM projects, and some of
these projects have been approved under the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JI).Japan is expected to
disseminate itsoriginal technologies including gas simulation, high
efficiency gas recovery and induction, monitoring, gas concentration and
high efficiency power generation.
Another advantageous property of coal is that coal seams can absorb twice
as much carbon dioxide (CO2) as methanegas (CH4). This may enable CH4
contained in coal seams to be replaced by CO2, a greenhouse gas, thus
allowing geological storage of the greenhouse gas and even collection of
CH4 as a clean energy.
This new technique, called enhanced coal bed
methane recovery (ECBM), is nowbeing developed. Once established,
ECBM projects areexpected to moveforwardand qualify under the Kyoto Mechanism
(CDM/IJ) in the future.
Underground coal gasification(UCG)
is a process that gasifies underground coal in situ
to produce energy. This process makes it
possible to collect energy from coal resources
that have not been utilized because of their
deepness, thinness, low quality, steepness or
other reasons. If established, the UCG would
be a new coal energy technology for
developing domestic energy resources as well
as promoting environmental pollution control
measures abroad.
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