Grand Junction firm to work with China on coal mine projects

2013-07-24

The list of companies and agencies recently chosen for a U.S./China partnership program that promotes a cleaner global environment includes easily recognizable names: Coca-Cola, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Stony Brook University and the National Center for Climate Change.

Then there is Raven Ridge Resources.

The five-person Grand Junction-based environmental and energy consulting and development company was one of six entities chosen this year out of 41 applicants for the U.S. Treasury Department's EcoPartnership Program, which is also supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. State Department.

Raven Ridge's role is to work with the Chinese to drain and use methane gas from coal mines, according to the State Department. That is a specialty of Raven Ridge president Ray Pilcher, who is recognized as an international expert in turning methane gas from a mine hazard into a power source.

"I'll tell you, this just blew me away," said Pilcher, during a Skype interview from Mongolia where he was working on a mine project before heading to China to formally start working with Raven Ridge's EcoPartnership partner, the Guizhou International Cooperation Center for Environmental Protection.

Pilcher was also on the road when he learned Raven Ridge was chosen. He already travels to coal mines in remote parts of the world half the year, a globe-hopping chore that recently catapulted him into "2-million-miler" airline status.

Pilcher jetted back from Columbia to attend a ceremonial signing of the partnerships at the State Department in Washington, D.C., before hurrying on to Mongolia. This week, he is in China having his first working sessions with a representative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and his new Chinese partners.

China is doing more in the way of capturing methane gas from coal mines than U. S. companies are because of economics.

Natural gas is cheap in the United States so few mining companies are interested in adding the expense of capturing the methane gas that is found in coal seams and using it to make power.

But in China, where natural gas isn't as plentiful, more companies are open to Raven Ridge's recommended methods of trapping the gas and using it to power the mines.

"It makes more economic sense in China," said Pilcher's partner at Raven Ridge, Jim Marshall.

Pilcher said it is also a more pressing need in China because coal mines in China are very "gassy."

Taking methane gas out of mines addresses a safety issue. Buildups of the gas can cause underground explosions. It is also a major environmental concern. Methane is believed to be one of the more damaging greenhouse gases, thought to be 25 times worse than carbon dioxide.

Raven Ridge is promoting methods of removing gas from mines before, during and after mining. If the gas is removed before a mine is operational, much of the gas is kept from seeping into seams where it becomes a danger. When it is removed along with coal, it makes a mine very energy efficient. And when mining has ceased, the gas that continues to build underground can still be an energy resource.

"If you do this right, it's a virtuous cycle. If you do it wrong, it's a vicious cycle," Pilcher said.

Raven Ridge was been promoting such projects since the company was founded by Pilcher and Marshall in 1988.

The EcoPartnership program that has catapulted Raven Ridge into new prominence began in 2008 when delegates from China and the United States agreed to form partnerships between like-minded organizations to tackle environmental issues on a peer-to-peer basis.

Each year since then, new partnerships have been formed. In the first year of the program, the city of Denver was chosen to partner with Ford Motor Co., the Chinese city of Changqing and Chang'an Motors on a project that promoted a transition to more electric cars.

Read more: Grand Junction firm to work with China on coal mine projects - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_23718689/grand-junction-firm-work-china-coal-mine-projects#ixzz2Zwa81xmE

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