Methane adsorption behavior on coal having different pore structures

The adsorption of methane onto five dry coal samples was measured at 298 K over the pressure range from 0 to 3.5 MPa using a volumetric method. The isotherm data were fitted to the Langmuir and the Freundlich equations. The kinetic data were fitted to a pseudo second order equation, the linear driving force equation (LDF), and an intra-particle diffusion model. These results showed that higher methane adsorption is correlated with larger micro-pore volumes and specific surface areas. The adsorption was related to the narrow micro-pore size distribution when the previous two parameters are large. The kinetics study showed that the kinetics of methane adsorption onto these five dry coal samples followed a pseudo second order model very well. Methane adsorption rates are controlled by intra-particle diffusion. The faster the intra-particle diffusion, the faster the methane adsorption rate will be.