COALBED METHANE

AJAY GURUNG
Presidency university
Department of petroleum engineering

INTRODUCTION CBM EXPLORATION Fig 3: exploration of

coal is derived from the plant remains that have CBM can be recovered from CBM
been compacted, hardened, chemically altered and underground coal before, during, or after mining
metamorphosed by the high pressure and high operations. Vertical and horizontal wells are
temperature condition over the periods of time. used to develop CBM resources. Extraction
Coal bed methane (CBM) is an unconventional form requires drilling. wells into the coal seams and
of natural gas found in coal deposits or coal seams. removing water contained in the seam to reduce
It is a primary clean energy source of natural gas. hydrostatic pressure and release absorbed gas
The development and utilization of CBM is of great out of the coal.
social and economic benefit. It is a clean-burning Parameters in CBM exploration
fuel (compressed natural gas—CNG) for domestic Regional geology of the area, Mapping and
and industrial uses. The extraction of CNG reduces surveying
explosion hazards in underground coal mines. Large Areal extent of coal seams
amounts of methane (CH4) are often associated Thickness of the coal seams and gas content
with some coal seams. data
Permeability in the coal as measured by test,
ORIGIN AND FROMATION OF COAL logs.
CBM extracting technique (Hydraufracturing)
The process of forming coal is known as
 Fracturing fluid injection
Coalification. Coalification is a geological process of
 Fracture propagation
formation of materials with increasing content of
 Proppant placement
the element carbon from organic materials that
 Fluid recovery /Dewatering
occurs in a first, biological stage into peats, followed
by a gradual transformation into coal by action of
moderate temperature and high pressure in a USES OF CBM
geochemical stage. Coal is classified as lignte, Auto fuel: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
subbituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. Coal is Fertilizer: As feed stock for urea manufacture
composed of vitrinite, liptinite, Other uses: Domestic and Industrial uses
and inertinite maceral groups, which Fig 3: CBM reserves and activity in (TCF)
influence hydrocarbon generation. Gases are FUTURE OF CBM
stored by adsorption on surfaces of coal pore and In the future the CBM industry may take an entirely new direction,
cleat (fracture) systems becoming an essential player in carbon storage. A number of enhanced
coal-bed methane projects have investigated coal seams and depleted
CBM fields as candidates for CO2 sequestration. The organic materials
that make up coals generally have a stronger affinity for CO2 than for
Fig 1: fracture form during coalification process methane. In a process similar to that used for secondary oil recovery,
CO2 is pumped into a coal seam and is adsorbed by the coal while
displacing and liberating methane. ECBM projects offer the opportunity
of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and
simultaneously increasing natural gas supplies. The studies have
progressed from the data-gathering and analysis phase to
implementation, and the results have been encouraging

REFERENCE
 Coal Mine Methane. Clark Energy. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
Geoscience Australia, Coal seam gas Archived 16 October 2013 at
the Wayback Machine, accessed 10 Oct. 2013
US Energy Information Administration, Coalbed methane production,
accessed 9 Oct. 2013.