Australian black coal producers contribute to a program of collaborative research that is conducted for the benefit of the coal mining industry. Coal producers have committed to pay five cents per tonne to fund the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP). ACARP's mission is to research, develop and demonstrate technologies that lead to the safe, sustainable production and utilisation of coal.
ACARP supports those projects that enjoy industry-wide support and involvement and include:
ACARP impacts positively on every technical aspect of the coal industry and raises approximately $13million per year which is leveraged by other contributions to maintain annual research undertakings to the total value of over $32million. Each year the ACARP Committees select approximately 60 projects from the 300 submitted.
To date, dozens of individual research projects have been undertaken to assist the coal industry to improve rehabilitation success, reduce environmental emissions to land, air and water, improve the knowledge and control capabilities relating to noise and blasting techniques, and to investigate emerging precommercial technologies for methane capture and utilisation, such as using the methane in innovative power generation systems that significantly reduce Australia’s greenhouse emissions.