Energy as always is a vital source for the existence of mankind. The quest for deriving energy from conventional & non-conventional methods are always on with lot of research & development. Now comes the turn of green energy. Green energy can be developed from coal based Coal Bed Methane (CBM). If so, north -east states have a brighter future in near future as these states have huge reserve of Coal Bed Methane. In this regard lot of activities are going on to arrive in a befitting manner to tap these sources.
In last North-East Indian Energy Summit has invited center, the state governments and coal companies to exploit green energy from the region’s vast reserve of Coal Bed Methane. The coal fields of North-East have immense potential to produce energy from CBM. The task of the day is to survey the region’s coal rich areas & identify the potential areas for CBM exploration. Either it can be done at home or the coal fields of the region can be put for global bidding for CBM exploration. According to an estimate the region accounts for twenty percent of the entire country’s hydrocarbon (Oil & Gas) potential. The North-East has a coal reserves of about 327.2 million tonnes. But experts feel the reserve may be around 451 million tonnes out of which a major portion lies with Meghalaya & Assam.
The coal formed in this region due to bio-conversion of fossillised orgainc matters leads to generation and trapping of methane in the coal during the formative process. The pressure exerted by water keeps the methane absorbed on the internal surface of coal in these regions usually. Thus the coal bed gas available in this region is in amono-molecular state and not as a free gas as in natural oil or gas reserves.
According to scientists, working in this field, all coal fields of the world have Coal Bed Methanes but the only difference being the quantity of gas in the individual coal seams & the quality of it. Though the presence of gas in coal has been known for many decades, it is only in the last decade, it has emerged as a viable energy source. It has been initiated by United States, CBM exploration department, but the good news is IIT-Guwahati has already initiated series of studies on the recovery of oil from the coal shell. Now the need of the hour is, centre, states, coal companies & research organisations must come together to find out ways & means to explore the region which has a vast reserve of CBM & bring out methods to tap this source to benefit north-east in particular & the country in general in the field of green gas production.