Application of thermal methods to increase the efficiency of coalbed methane production

Abstract

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. In recent years, the expansion of the base of energy raw materials occurs through the involvement of new unconventional sources into operation. The development of new technologies made it possible to extract methane and its homologues from sedimentary formations that were not previously considered as sources of natural gas. One of these formations are coal-bearing strata. In some cases, the development of coal seams using traditional methods (quarry and mine) is impossible due to mining, geological, economic, technical and other reasons. The volume of industrial production of coalbed methane in foreign countries is beginning to have a significant impact on global gas markets. Industrial extraction of methane is conducted in the USA, China, Canada and other industrialized countries. It should be noted that the potential of unconventional resources of methane is huge-the resources of coal in the world reach 15 trillion tons. Coals are a promising source of coalbed methane. Gas output can be increased by thermal exposure to the coal seam. We have carried out studies of residual gas components from samples of fossil coal by the method of combined thermogravimetry (TG) and IR spectroscopy (IR). The method of thermogravimetry allows us to estimate the amount of gas sorbed in the coals, and IR spectroscopy to identify the composition of the emitted gases in each temperature range. Data on the composition of gas fractions in various temperature ranges was obtained.