Pilot · an independent case study on a real mine
The candidate pilotAuguste Victoria Colliery · Marl, Germany
The pilot is not an imagined site — and not an active project. It is a candidate case study on the best-documented specimen in our inventory: a real colliery on the northern edge of the Ruhr, closed in 2015, that the model says is still emitting methane and for which no public source-level measurement was identified in the sources reviewed.
Independent research case study. It does not imply site access, operator involvement or an existing project relationship.
One of Germany’s last hard-coal collieries — very deep, very gassy coal.
GEM June 2024, Kholod decline — second-largest source in the EU inventory.
The dominant unresolved variable. Substantially flooded, the model expects little emission; dry, it vents on. Partial flooding, seals and connected workings must be verified on site.
MCM per year on the dry path — a long tail the 2030 venting ban will not wait for.
Why this site: the data argues for it. Germany reportedly utilises ≈99% of its captured abandoned-mine methane (the sources do not resolve the denominator), the grid and heat-network infrastructure of the Ruhr is dense, and the mine’s flooding question is exactly the kind the platform is built to answer.
The compliance clock · (EU) 2024/1787
First emissions reports fell due 5 August 2026 and venting and flaring are both prohibited from 2030 — so the pilot has a deadline before it has a budget.
The regulation plan →Candidate status — nothing below is secured
- Site accessUnknown not secured
- Operator engagementUnknown not initiated
- Regulatory sponsorUnknown not secured
- Baseline monitoringUnknown not begun
- Engineering designEstimated conceptual only
- Budget & timelineUnknown not developed
Decision gates, in order
- Phase 0 · Permission & records — identify the responsible authority or operator; secure site and data access; review shafts, seals, water levels and connected workings.
- Phase 1 · Verify — confirm flooding status; locate emission pathways; measure flow, concentration, pressure and variability; establish the safety classification and baseline.
- Phase 2 · Select — recovery and use, oxidation or destruction, monitoring only — or no action, if measured emissions are immaterial.
- Phase 3 · Test — deploy a limited demonstration; verify destruction efficiency, uptime and economics against published thresholds.
- Phase 4 · Expand conditionally — mine-water heat, water treatment, solar and storage, landscape systems and the public observatory, only where site evidence supports them.
The core pilot is phases 0–3: access, measurement, one methane intervention, and proof. Everything else on this page is conditional site systems. Success thresholds (minimum stable flow, destruction efficiency, uptime, cost per tonne mitigated) are to be published before any deployment decision.
The site, in section · sheet AV-001
One colliery, surface to −1,300 metres.
The pilot’s subject, drawn as an engineering cutaway: the flat Marl surface, Schacht 8, the seams and their machines, the ore level the coal never advertised — and the water question at the bottom of everything.
Shafts 1/2 sunk on the flat land at Marl; the coal-bearing Carboniferous only appears under ≈580 m of marl. First coal raised in 1905.
A lead-zinc vein — struck by accident in 1930 — worked as an ore mine inside the colliery; about a fifth of Germany’s lead-zinc-silver ore in the 1950s. Find it: station 04.
Schacht 8 sunk at Haltern-Lippramsdorf, deepened to ≈1,330 m by 1980 — the deep end of the section. Find it: the depth rail.
Closure, after ≈116 years — among the last of Germany’s hard-coal collieries. The methane did not stop. Find it: station 05.
The site, modelled · from the field study
This exact mine, as the model sees it.
The field study’s twin instrument defaults to Auguste Victoria. Flip the flooded-status and seal dice, and watch what the pilot would have to resolve with instruments.
The plan · five systems on one site
What Aftermine would build here.
The engineering sheets of the first system — the containerized adaptive abatement unit: general arrangement, and the router that picks the destruction path from the gas itself.
01
Methane field
- Collection wells and sealed vents
- Continuous emissions monitoring
- Gas conditioning
- Useful methane recovery where practical
- Methanotrophic treatment for suitable dilute streams
02
Mine-energy system
- Mine-water heat pumps
- Solar generation
- Thermal or battery storage
- Heat and power for on-site processes
- Potential connection to nearby users
03
Biological systems
- Modular methanotrophic packed-bed reactors
- Constructed wetlands
- Water-quality and carbon-balance instrumentation
04
Restored landscape
- Native habitat
- Managed wetlands
- Safe public paths
- Ecological monitoring
- Mining-history interpretation
05
Public observatory
- Live emissions dashboard
- Interactive 3D digital twin
- Research laboratory
- Training centre
- Transparent project reporting
What would make it real
The site is the proof, or it is nothing.
The pilot only matters if its numbers hold: methane destroyed measured, not claimed; heat delivered metered; habitat monitored season over season. The observatory exists so that anyone — resident, regulator, sceptic — can inspect the same data the operators see.