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Show Book Cliffo coal fields may produce commercial mofliooo cent. "Thus, removal of methane meth-ane by the technique being studied by Mountain Fuel has the potential for contributing con-tributing to safer mining conditions and reducing ventilating costs while providing pro-viding for more natural gas supplies," Dr. Coates said. He indicated that methane gas from coal deposits has fuel qualities that are virT tually indistinguishable from natural gas. Mountain Fuel plans to drill three experimental wells into coal seams as deep as 2,500 feet below the surface. Once a well is drilled, sand slurried in a water gel or liquid nitrogen nitro-gen foam will be pumped down the well to stimulate the flow of methane gas into the well bore. "These wells will help us determine if we can pump out nearly pure methane in sufficient quantitites to economically justify production pro-duction costs," Dr. Coates said. Preliminary estimates esti-mates indicate that it may be possible to recover as much as 100,000 cubic feet of methane gas daily from these wells. "If we can achieve such a rate, the economics of this process look attractive to us," Dr. Coates said. One of the advantages of conducting the experimerJ in the Book Cliffs area that Mountain Fuel alreadj has an existing natural gas pipeline traversing the area. "Once we dehydrate and compress the methane gas, all that remains is to put it into the pipeline for distribution," Dr. Coates said. Central Utah's Book ' Cliff coal fields will be the site this year of research designed to recover methane gas from the state's abundant abun-dant coal fields. Mountain Fuel Supply Co., and the U.S. Department of Energy are jointly funding a $1,218 million, three -year project to recover methane gas from these well known fields. "The coal in the Book Cliffs area is known to be gassy," according to Dr. Ralph L. Coates, research director for the company. "For example, the ventilating venti-lating systems in existing mines there are carrying off an estimated three million mil-lion cubic feet of methane gas each day." He said methane is a hazard to mining operations because of the threat of explosion. ex-plosion. Air is circulated through mines at rates sufficient suffi-cient to keep methane concentrations con-centrations below one per- |