Coalbed methane is considered as a dangerous nuisance in mining industry.But it is capable of producing abundant amunt of clean energy supplies to help other diminishing hydrocarbon reserves.Recent developments in technologies and methodologies are playing a vital role in harnessing the unconventional resources.
The largest CBM resource bases lie in the former Soviet Union, Canada, China, Australia, India and the United States. However, much of the world’s CBM recovery potential has not been used. According to a data regarding extrction of CBM worldwide, just 1 TCM out of 143 TCM worldwide reserve. This might seem a negligible amount of extraction. But, for something that just began in the late 80's, it can be considered as significant.For example,in australia, the CBM extraction in 1990 was very low as compared to 4 billion cu. meter in 2008, showing a significan icrease by 39%.
India has substential coal reserves and most of them are suitable for CBM development. Deep coal deposits, not accessible by conventional mining methods, also provide CBM development opportunities.
Approximately 70 countries have coal bearing regions and more than 40 of these have initiates CBM activities of some type. In about 20 countries, active drilling programs are either in progress or have been in the past. In the future the CBM industry may take an
entirely new direction, becoming an essential player in carbon storage. With the fast use and demand of the conventional sources of energy, it has become important for us to look for substitute for the unconventional sources of energy. CBM has arised as one of the major ones and is soon to serve as a very important fuel.