Developed in conjunction with British-based mining and energy industry consultants, Wardell-Armstrong, and backed by Alkane Energy plc, another British firm, the software “will revolutionise the coal methane industry”, according to Micromine.

The company claims to have drawn on the vast experience in methane measurement and mathematical modelling of its British partners to produce MMgas, which determines the economic viability of a project while providing a means of determining associated risk through changing input variables. MMgas also provides an audit trail for project evaluation.

“The estimation process provides a three dimensional visualisation of the gas reservoir and allows the effects of mine water recovery to be assessed,” a Micromine spokesperson said.

“MMgas models the coal seams, attributes methane content to the seams by depth gradient reallocation and reduces the methane content subject to the degree of influence of the mining disturbance.”

The result was a measure of residual methane, recoverable methane, void volume, intact seam volume, disturbance volumes and potential megawatt consumption years.

“MMgas is the first commercially available software package to cater for such calculations,” the spokesperson said.

With its high-end visualisation and ease of use, Micromine expects MMgas to have a considerable impact in the methane recovery market, especially in countries where tax credits are granted for a green status fuel source. Micromine produces software for the mineral and energy industries and operates globally from offices in Australia, Africa, Europe Asia and North America.