At the Tenth US/North American Mine Ventilation Conference, IRG staff members F. Peter Carothers (Senior Engineer) and H. Lee Schultz (Director, Environmental Programs) co-authored a paper with Clark Talkington (US Environmental Protection Agency) on emerging technologies for oxidizing the low concentrations of methane contained in underground coal mine ventilation system exhaust air.

The conference, held in Anchorage, Alaska from May 16–19, 2004, attracted mine ventilation specialists from thirteen countries the world over. Mr. Carothers presented IRG’s entry, entitled “Mitigation of Methane Emissions from Coal Mine Ventilation Air: An Update”, which was sponsored by the EPA's Coalbed Methane Outreach Program and focused on recent developments in the ventilation air methane mitigation technology development field. Information on how to obtain the full proceedings is available on the conference web site at http://www.faculty.uaf.edu/ffrg/vent.