Adsorption isotherms and kinetic characteristics of methane on block anthracite over a wide pressure range

It is important to quantitatively understand the methane adsorption and transport mechanism in coal for an evaluation of the reserves and for its production forecast. In this work, a block coal sample was chosen to perform the CH4 adsorption experiments using the gravimetric method at temperatures of 293.60 K, 311.26 K, 332.98 K and 352.55 K and pressures up to 19 MPa. The excess adsorption capacity of CH4 in dry block anthracite increased, followed by a sequence decrease with the increasing pressure. High temperature restrained the growth of the excess adsorption due to that the adsorption is an intrinsically physical and exothermic process. The excess adsorption peak decreased slowly with the increase of temperature and intersected at a pressure of more than 18 MPa; meanwhile, the pressure at the excess adsorption peak increased. The existing correlations were examined in terms of density rather than pressure. The DR+k correlation, with an average relative deviation of ±0.51%, fitted our data better than the others, with an average relative deviation of up to 2.29%. The transportation characteristics of CH4 adsorption was also investigated in this study, including the adsorption rate and diffusion in block coal. The kinetic data could be described by a modified unipore model. The adsorption rates were found to exhibit dependence on pressure and temperature at low pressures, while the calculated diffusivities exhibited little temperature dependence. In addition, the kinetic characteristics were compared between CH4 and CO2 adsorption on the block coal. The excess adsorption ratios of CO2 to CH4 obtained from the DR+k model decreased with the increasing pressure.

Block coal was used to investigate the characteristics of isothermal adsorption and kinetics for CH4 in a gravimetric system. The results prove that both DR+k and diffusion models have better fitting effects for experimental data.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide