An immense gas resource is being vented to atmosphere from coal mines throughout the world which is a waste of an energy supply and may be deleterious to the environment. Resource Enterprises, Inc. (REI) has identified potential commercial applications for utilization of the "waste" gas, the obvious of which involved direct combustion processes. The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 created a favorable environment in the U.S. to develop independent electric power generation projects. This directed REl's initial focus toward power production. However, depressed economic conditions in industrialized areas (especially coal producing regions) caused a surplus of generating capacity and ultimately resulted in REl's investigation of non-electric alternatives for commercializing methane produced in conjunction with coal mining operations. This led to the subject project, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Morgantown Energy Technology Center (DOE) and REI.