Title: Influences of temperature and moisture on coal sorption characteristics of a bituminous coal from the Sydney Basin, Australia

Authors: Lei Zhang; Ting Ren; Naj Aziz

Addresses: School of Mines, Key Laboratory of Deep Coal Resource Mining, Ministry of Education of China, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China ' School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia ' School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia

Abstract: Accurate testing of coal isotherms plays a significant role in the areas of coal seam gas drainage, outburst control, CO₂ geo-sequestration, coalbed methane (CBM) and enhanced coalbed methane recovery (ECBM). Coal isotherms were tested with CO₂ and CH₄ gases with a modified indirect gravimetric method in the University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. The adsorption capacity of coal shows a linear decrease with increasing temperature. The decreasing rate of adsorption capacity is greater for CO₂ than CH₄, and which is also higher for dry coals. The moist coal sample isotherms for both CO₂ and CH₄ demonstrate a much lower sorption capacity. The average reduction ratio of coal adsorption capacity of CO₂ and CH₄ with moisture is 11.1% and 14.0%, respectively in the testing temperature range. The experimental results show that moisture content in coal has greater effect on the adsorption capacity of CH₄ than that of CO₂. [Received: August 23, 2013; Accepted: December 13, 2013]

Keywords: temperature; moisture content; indirect gravimetric method; coal sorption; coal isotherms; adsorption capacity; particle size; CO2; carbon dioxide; CH4; methane; Australia; bituminous coal; isotherm testing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2014.064429

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2014 Vol.8 No.1, pp.62 - 78

Received: 26 Aug 2013
Accepted: 13 Dec 2013
Published online: 18 Sep 2014 *

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