With increasing worldwide concern on Green House Gas (GHG) emission and its reduction, significant interest is now directed toward finding a practical and economical ways of enhancing methane gas containment in coal deposits. Carbon dioxide sequestration has been tried successfully for the recovery of methane from coal measures rocks. A laboratory study was undertaken to examine the effect of displacing the adsorbed gases in coal with N2 injection. To study the feasibility of removing the initially adsorbed gas from coal with another gas, tests were carried out using an in-house built multi-function outburst research rig (MFORR). Accordingly the following laboratory tests were carried out: sorption and desorption characteristics of CO2/CH4 mixed gas in coal, displacement characteristics of adsorbed mixed gases with N2 injection, displacement characteristics of adsorbed CO2 with N2 injection, and displacement characteristics of adsorbed CH4 with N2 injection. The study revealed that CO2 desorption increased by almost 30% as a result of N2 injection, which is about double that obtained without N2 injection. This finding has significant bearing in solving the drainage difficulties experienced at West Cliff Colliery and Panel 500 area, which had difficulty in draining CO2 gas concentration zones.
History
Citation
This conference paper was originally published as Florenti, R, Aziz, N, Black, D, Nghiem, L and Baris, K, Recovery of stored gas in coal by nitrogen injection - a laboratory study, in Aziz, N (ed), 10th Underground Coal Operators' Conference, University of Wollongong & the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2010, 217-228.