OREANDA-NEWS. January 22, 2009. DTEK,the fuel and energy industry leader in Ukraine, announced an open tender process for potential buyers to purchase the company’s Emission Reduction Units (ERUs).
 
This latest development is a key part of DTEK’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its facilities. The installation of  equipment at the company’s Komsomolets Donbassa coal mine began in August 2008. Coal Mine Methane (CMM), which occurs naturally in mines, will be captured and utilised through flaring and electricity/heat generation, reducing the amount of methane entering the atmosphere and replacing the use of coal at the plant.
 
The company aims to utilise up to 100% of the total CMM from the mine.  Two flares were installed in September 2008 and two coal-fired boilers for the production of heat will be upgraded to a firing capacity of 10 MW each by February 2009.  In the next phase, it is planned to install two cogeneration units with a combined power output of approximately 3MW.
 
DTEK Business Development Director Guerman Ainbinder commented: “This project is further demonstration of DTEK’s continuing commitment to improving the environment and developing  innovative  energy sources  at our facilities. Selling our ERUs in advance will allow us to raise additional finance to help finalize the project. The environmental benefits will be significant, reducing our CO2 equivalent emissions by approximately 720,000 tonnes in total, the same as removing the emissions of 380,000 cars from the atmosphere”.
 
The DTEK project has been registered and approved by the Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (JICS) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Under the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, ERUs help signatory countries such as Ukraine meet their obligations to reduce greenhouse emissions and can be traded.
 
One ERU represents an emission reduction equalling one tonne of CO2 equivalent.   Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 with one tonne equivalent to 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide. So although burning one tonne of methane produces nearly 3 tonnes of CO2, its greenhouse effect is reduced by 20 ERU.