ABSTRACT
Ukrainian coal industry provides guaranty for its energy independence. Economic feasibility of this industry demands intensive coal extraction using longwalls that yield from 5000 to 7000 ton raw coal per day. High rate of longwall advance causes intensive methane emanation that exposes underground atmosphere to danger of gas explosion. Traditional technologies that used to eliminate the gas approached to limit of their capability. As usually, ventilation and degassing of rock mass through underground boreholes may seize no more than 7-10 m3 of the gas from every ton of coal. However methane content increased up to 20-25 m3/t due to depth of mining increase. To combat this problem, additional degassing technology expands implementation using so called goaf wells for degassing the rock mass from the surface.
