Enhanced coal bed methane recovery

A Enhanced coal bed methane recovery finalized to carbon dioxide storage: study of the adsorption and swelling phenomena, and the coal bed dynamics.

When coal seams are formed by compaction of plants, gases including methane are generated and accumulated into the coal cleats or adsorbed into the coal micropores. Such coal bed methane is normally recovered by means of reservoir-pressure depletion, i.e. by pumping out water and degassing the reservoir. A more attractive process with higher yields is the so-called Enhanced Coal Bed Methane recovery (ECBM), whereby carbon dioxide is pumped into the coal seam to displace methane thanks to higher CO2 adsorptivity. Injecting CO2 in unminable coal seams leads not only to methane recovery but also to CO2 sequestration. The factors still limiting the implementation of ECBM recovery are economical, i.e. lack of penalties for CO2 emissions, as well as technological and scientific, i.e. limited understanding of fundamental issues related to ECBM. This is the main motivation of this project, in fact it will include on one side the experimental and modeling characterization of single and multicomponent adsorption/desorption on different coal type. On the other side, the analysis of the coal bed dynamics will be done through permeability and conventional breakthrough experiments but using a setup especially designed. Finally, the results from the two parts described above are combined to produce a detailed model of the whole system.