One of the ways to avoid the hazards associated with gas escaping at the earth’s surface is to draw off the migrating gas underground, through boreholes, before it enters buildings. There are examples of this at several locations in the Ruhr Region.

To draw off the gas, several near-surface boreholes are drilled, cased and connected to a gas collection pipeline. An evacuation plant extracts the air from this pipeline so that a partial vacuum is created in the boreholes and the rock strata. The gases that are extracted vary considerably in concentration and it is sometimes necessary to transport gas in an explosive concentration.

In order to overcome the problems associated with this, DMT has developed explosion protection concepts for gas extraction plants so they can be operated under zone 0 conditions, i.e. capable of transporting flammable gas mixtures. Such plants are built and sold or rented by DMT and its partners. If required, DMT is willing and able to take over the management of such installations.