COAL BED METHANE INTERESTS

Sectioned coal showing microlithotype structuring

The coalbed methane industry is described as "still in infancy" by many. That is true, certainly in the UK and Europe as a whole. The impact of maceral composition on methane production and diffusion is not fully understood although some work has linked maceral groups with sorption characteristics. The nature of macerals, their proportion relative to other macerals and their structuring in the coal seam will give more useful information about the way CBM behaves compared with a simple maceral composition.

PROJECTS

One of the current projects has two parts. Firstly, the design and construction of a test rig that can simulate the conditions of a coalbed ie raised temperatures and pressures. The rig will allow gas to pass through sectional coal blocks in order to monitor diffusion, generation and emission properties under realistic conditions. Realistic conditions include elevated pressures (~50MPa) and elevated temperatures (<100 degrees Celsius). Secondly, to develop an image analysis program that can map out microlithotype structures across the surface of a coal block. This information can then be correlated with sorption behaviour. This work represents an advance on previous work since it will objectively quantify associations of macerals on the surface of a large area of coal which, in turn, is responsible for the observed sorption characteristics.

Keywords: coalbed methane, image analysis, characterisation, emission, production, diffusion, macerals, microlithotypes

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