(EnergyAsia, April 1 2011, Friday) — US-based conglomerate General Electric Company (GE) said it has inaugurated Russia’s first coal-bed-methane (CBM) to energy project at Kuzbasskaya Energosetevaya Compania’s (KEC) Talda site located near Kemerovo city.

The project involves GE’s 1-megawatt (MW) J320 Jenbacher engine which uses the captured gas to provide electricity that is ultimately sold to the grid.

The gas comes from test drills that Gazprom, the world’s largest extractor of natural gas, is conducting to capture the huge reserves of CBM in this traditional coal mining region.

The contract was awarded in September 2010 to engineering firm INTMA, GE’s official distributor and service partner in Russia for its Jenbacher product line.

GE said the project is part of a broader corporate strategy to invest in resource rich regions like Russia to respond quicker to customer needs, while also helping support the country’s environmental and energy efficiency goals.

The Kemerovo administration is also encouraging active coal mines in the region to collect the gas before, during and after coaling operations to promote safety and provide additional revenues to the coal mining companies.

GE said its J320 gas engine technology has been successfully used in power projects involving various types of coal seam gases (coal-mine-methane, abandoned-mine-methane and CBM) around the world.

GE said it has installed Jenbacher units with a total capacity of more than 400 MW running on this type of gas. The engines have the potential to generate more than three million megawatt hours of electricity per year — saving the equivalent of 830 million cubic meters of natural gas a year.

Peter Kuruch, KEC’s chief executive officer, said:

“GE’s innovative technology allows us to turn a previously environmentally harmful gas into a safer, useful fuel to produce energy for our customers in a more cost-effective manner. GE’s ability to install and start-up the engine in a short timeframe — 2.5 months — along with the company’s vast expertise in this industry were main reasons we chose them for this important project.”

Rod Christie, GE Energy president for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia & CIS, said:

“The flexibility of GE’s Jenbacher technology will enable our customer to utilise methane that would otherwise be released from the mine into the atmosphere and convert it into valuable heat and electric power. This also will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 30,000 tons a year. This project embodies the spirit of GE’s ecomagination initiative, demonstrating that successful business solutions also can be environmentally responsible.”

CBM gas occurs naturally within coal deposits and is composed largely of methane, the principal component of natural gas. Compared to natural gas, CBM even burns a little more efficiently and thus can serve as a valuable alternative for natural gas on a global base.

The Kemerovo plant opening follows recent efforts by GE’s energy business aimed at growing its overall presence in the global coal mining and energy space.