COALBED METHANE

What is coalbed methane?

 Coalbed methane is natural gas or

methane (CH4) that occurs in coal beds
and has been generated during the
conversion of plant material to coal (the
process known as coalification).
Coalbed methane are used for a variety
of purposes that range from domestic,
commercial, industrial to electrical power
generation.
Other gases that may exist in coal gas
deposits in trace amounts are ethane,
propane, butane, carbon dioxide and
nitrogen.

 Methane produced from a typical coalbed

methane well has a heating value of about
100025 British Thermal Units (Btus) per
standard cubic foot.
One million Btus (the energy equivalent of 1000 cubic feet
of methane) approximate the energy
consumed by a person in the U.S. in about
1.2 days.
A million Btu's of fossil fuel can generate
about 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity at an
electric utility.

How does coalbed methane form?

 During coalification, plant material that

accumulated and was preserved in ancient
swamps and bogs at rates fast enough to
prevent decay (oxidation) begins to
compact upon burial.
The material is first converted to peat as
much of the water in the original material is
expelled.
As the temperature increases with further
burial, ever-increasing ranks of coal form,
starting with lignite, followed by
subbituminous coal and bituminous coal.

 If the heat (and pressure) is great enough,

anthracite (the highest rank of coal) forms.
Biogenic methane (that attributed to
bacterial activity) is first to form.
When the temperature exceeds that in
which bacteria can live, thermogenic
methane (that attributed to heating) forms.
At these different stages of coalification,
various hydrocarbons (called volatile
matter, including methane), along with
carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water, are
released.

 Increased temperatures throughout burial

drive off volatile matter.
The coalification process can stop at any
time, depending on geologic conditions,
leaving what we see today as varying
ranks of coal.
Much of the methane generated by the
coalification process escapes to the
surface or migrates into adjacent reservoir
or other rocks, but a portion is trapped
within the coal itself, primarily adsorbed on
or absorbed within micropores of the coal.

What are the two types of coalbed

methane?

 During the early stages of coalification, biogenic

methane is generated as a by-product of
bacterial respiration.
Aerobic bacteria (those that use oxygen in
respiration) first metabolize any free oxygen left
in the plant remains and surrounding sediments.
In fresh water environments, methane
production begins immediately after the oxygen
is depleted (Rice and Claypool, 1981).
Species of anaerobic bacteria (those that don't
use oxygen) then reduce carbon dioxide and
produce methane through anaerobic respiration
(Rice and Claypool, 1981).

 When a coal's temperature underground

reaches about 122F (Figure 1), and after a
sufficient amount of time, most of the biogenic
methane has been generated, about two-thirds
of the original moisture has been expelled, and
the coal attains an approximate rank of
subbituminous (Rightmire, 1984).
As the temperature increases above 122F
through increased burial or increased
geothermal gradient, thermogenic processes
begin and additional water, carbon dioxide, and
nitrogen are generated as coalification proceeds
to approximately the rank of high volatile
bituminous (Rightmire, 1984).

 Figure 1. Calculated curves of gases generated by thermogenisis

from coal during coalification. Modified from Rightmire, 1984.

 Maximum generation of carbon dioxide, with

little methane generation occurs at about 210F.
Generation of thermogenic methane begins in
the higher ranks of the high volatile bituminous
coals, and at about 250F, generation of
methane exceeds generation of carbon dioxide.
Maximum generation of methane from coal
occurs at about 300F.
With even higher temperatures and higher rank
coals, methane is still generated, but at
somewhat lower volumes (Rightmire, 1984).

How does coalbed methane

occur in the coal?

 Because coal beds serve as both the

source rocks and the reservoir rocks, gas
storage in coal beds is more complex than
in most conventional reservoirs (e.g.,
carbonate and sandstone).
Although coalbed methane can (and does)
migrate to non-coal reservoir rocks, once
the gas leaves the coal beds it is no longer
considered coalbed methane.
Gas reservoirs composed of coal contain
unique properties for gas storage that are
not present in other reservoirs.

 According to Yee and others (1993), coalbed

methane is stored in four ways:
1) as free gas within the micropores (pores with a
diameter of less than .0025 inches) and cleats
(sets of natural fractures in the coal);
2) as dissolved gas in water within the coal;
3) as adsorbed gas held by molecular attraction on
surfaces of macerals (organic constituents that
comprise the coal mass), micropores, and cleats
in the coal; and
4) as absorbed gas within the molecular structure
of the coal molecules.

 The amount of methane present within a

particular volume of coal is very large.
Coals at shallower depths with good cleat
development contain significant amounts
of free and dissolved gas while the
percentage of adsorbed methane
generally increases with increasing
pressure (depth) and coal rank.

How long have we known

about coalbed methane?

 Occurrences of coalbed methane, either

biogenically derived from shallow, lower rank
coal beds or thermogenically derived from
more deeply buried, higher rank coal beds,
have been documented in many Wyoming
coal areas (Jones and De Bruin, 1990).
Coalbed methane has been observed in
water wells in the Powder River Coal Field
since the 1950's (Olive, 1957) and some of
the historical ranches that have used coal
beds for water sources have encountered
coalbed methane since 1916 (Jones and De
Bruin, 1990).

Origin of Coalbed Methane

Coalbed methane (CBM), or coalbed natural

gas, is an unconventional natural gas in coal
that formed as:
(1) thermogenic gas in high rank coals
(bituminous to anthracite) through the
process of coalification at high temperatures,
(2) biogenic gas in low rank coals
(subbituminous) generated by bacterial
activity, and
(3) secondary biogenic gas accumulating in
high rank coal (Rice, 1993; Faiz and Hendry,
2006; Flores, 2008).

 CBM is comprised of 8898 % CH4, which is

generated in significant amounts (100300 m3/g
of coal) during the coalification process (Rice,
1993), with minor amounts of CO2 and N2.
Thus, the abundance of CH4 popularized the
CBM terminology.
Heavy hydrocarbons such as ethane, butane,
propane, and pentane, are mainly associated
with the thermogenic gas.
Average desorbed gas content in bituminous
coal (919 m3/t) is higher than in subbituminous
coal (14 m3/t) (Creedy et al., 2001; Stricker et
al., 2006).

Storage and Flow of Gas and Water

Gases, such as CH4 and CO2 molecules
and N2, are attracted as monolayers by
Van der Waals, which is a weak force or
bond, and adsorbed on surfaces of coal
fractures or cleats and pores such as
micropore (<2 nm),
mesopore (2-50 nm), and
macropore (>50nm) (Clarkson and Bustin,
1996) and held by groundwater hydrostatic
pressure.

 The pore sizes may control the amount of

adsorbed CH4, CO2, and N2 with molecular
diameters of 0.38, 0.33, and 0.36 nm,
respectively.
Average adsorption ratio of CH4:CO2 is
about 1:14 in lignite, 1:10 in subbituminous
coal, 1:3 in bituminous coal, and 1:2 in
semianthraciteanthracite coal which is
why coals have excellent potential for CO2
sequestration coupled with enhanced
recovery of CBM especially in low rank
coals.

 Although molecular sizes of CH4and CO2

appear similar, differences in molecular
diameters and shapes may control
replacement of one molecule for the other.
Moreover, hydrostatic pressures must be
maintained to hold gas in the coal,
otherwise CO2 sequestration by molecular
replacement of CH4 is not possible.
Coal stores 67 times as much gas as
conventional reservoirs of equal rock
volume due to the large internal surface
area.

 About 98 % of the gas is stored in pores in the

coal matrix and about 2 % in coal fractures
(Mavor and Nelson, 1997).
Also, gas occurs as solute in groundwater in the
coal. Thus, a small amount of free gas from the
fracture system and gas solute is released
during the initial dewatering of CBM wells to
reduce hydrostatic pressure in coal reservoirs.
Gas diffusion occurs from pores through the coal
matrix, with the gas migrating into cleats where
two-phase transport of gas and water is
governed by Darcys Law ( Figure. 1 ).

Figure 1. Flow chart of gas and water transport from coal matrix through
cleat fractures to the borehole during dewatering of a coal reservoir.

 Gas flow in coal is controlled by

permeability or connectivity of open
fractures, which in turn is mainly controlled
by rank.
Because fracture spacing is less in
bituminous coal than in subbituminous
coal (Law, 1993), permeability in
subbituminous coal is 11,000 md
compared to 115 md in bituminous coal
(Creedy et al., 2001).

 Continuous dewatering, from a few days to

months depending on the volume water in
the coal reservoir, creates local (i.e.,
borehole) and regional (i.e., several
boreholes) depressions of low hydrostatic
pressure, which then causes gas and
water to flow or drain from high-pressure
areas.
Gas and water are separated in the
borehole and both are collected at the
wellhead ( Figure. 2).

 Figure 2. Managing surface discharge, reinjection,

and reuse of co-produced water from coalbed
methane wells.

Co-produced water is disposed, with or

without treatment, to:
(1)ponds/lakes, streams/rivers, and
wetlands on the surface;
(2) reinjected to groundwater aquifers;
and/or
(3) used for stock reservoirs, irrigation, and
domestic water supplies depending on
chemical composition and trace elements
of the water (Rice et al., 2002).

CBM co-produced water is composed of:

(1) Na-HCO3-Cl;
(2) total dissolved solids (200 to >170,000
milligrams per liter [mg/L]);
(3) high Fe, Mn, and NH 4;
(4) low sulfate so barium is high; and
(5) trace metals less than 1 mg/L (Rice and
Nuccio, 2000).
Average daily water production per CBM well
from subbituminous coal is higher (60 m3) than
from bituminous coal (14 m3) (Creedy and
others, 2001).
Ratio of daily water and gas production per
CBM well in subbituminous coal is about 1:95
m3 and in bituminous coal is about 1:585 m3.

Ascendance of CBM
CBM was long known from underground
coal-mine explosions recorded in 1810
1845 in the United States and France, and
which presently are still causing fatalities
worldwide (Flores, 1998).
Methane degasification in U.S. coal mines
was implemented in 1940 as part of the
Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act to
improve ventilation (Deul and Kim, 1986).

 During the 1970s coal-mine methane

(CMM) in active underground mines and
abandoned mine methane (AMM) emerged
as viable energy sources; recovery of the
over pressured gas also prevented
outbursts, maintained safe mine operations,
generated electricity for mine equipment,
and reduced greenhouse gas emission.
Commercial CBM production from unmined
coal beds at shallow depths (less than
1,000 m) was a fledging industry in the
United States in the 1980s when the U.S.
Congress passed the Crude Oil Windfall
Profit Tax Act (Soot, 1988).

 This tax incentive encouraged economic

production of unconventional
hydrocarbons like CBM, with producers
receiving $0.75$1.34 per million Btu of
gas sold from the 1980s1990s.
This demonstrated the economic viability
of CBM, which now accounts for 8 % of
the total gas production in the United
States and subsequently promoted CBM
development worldwide.

 Presently, cumulative CBM production

(more than 0.5 trillion m3) in the United
States accounts for about 70 % of the
worlds total cumulative production; the
remainder is mainly from Australia,
Canada, and India.
Great Britain, Germany, China, Poland,
and the Czech Republic lead in
producing and utilizing CMM and AMM
(Bibler et al., 1998).

 Success of CBM, CMM, and AMM as

unconventional resources benefited from the
abundance of coal worldwide, with about 30
trillion tonnes of resource potentially
containing about 234 trillion m3 of gas-inplace resources.
Much of these resources are accessible at
shallow depths, making drilling and
completion inexpensive compared to
conventional gas development, although
modifications of conventional gas
technologies will facilitate development.

 In some countries where CBM is being

explored, competing interests of gas and
coal mining industries have created
contentious claims of ownership of CBM,
resulting in conflicts of leasing practices of
coal and gas deposits.
Most of these countries ultimately followed
and/or modified the opinion of the U.S.
Supreme Court Decision 1998-830P, which
favored the gas industry.

 Global emergence of CBM, CMM, and AMM

is driven by high demand but low supply of
gas, which in the future are critical concerns
for both developing and industrialized
countries.
Natural emission of CH4 from coal, with high
global warming potential (56 in 20 years to
6.5 in 500 years; IPCC, 1996), contributes
materially to global climate change.
In the future, reduction of CH4 emissions,
although shorter lived (123 years; ICCP,
1966) in the atmosphere, will be as vital as
reduction of CO2 emissions to control the
global warming trend.

Coal Maturation and Coalbed Methane (CBM)

Generation
Coal is a carbon-rich rock derived from plant
material (peat) that accumulated in swamps and
was subsequently buried by ongoing geological
processes.
With increasing depth of burial, the plant
material undergoes coalification, releasing
volatile matter (water, carbon dioxide, light
hydrocarbons, including methane) as it begins to
transform into coal.
With ongoing coalification, the coal becomes
progressively enriched in carbon and continues
to expel volatile matter.

 Generation of methane and other hydrocarbons

is a result of thermal maturation in coals, and
begins around the sub-bituminous "A" to high
volatile bituminous C rank stage, with amounts
of methane generated increasing significantly
throughout the medium to low volatile
bituminous coal ranks.
Shallow coals of the Plains (i.e., Ardley,
Horseshoe Canyon) have a low rank and have
not generated large quantities of methane.
Deeper coals (i.e., Mannville) have experienced
a greater degree of coalification (high rank) and
have produced and retained greater quantities of
methane than shallower coals.

 Some methane in coal may have been produced

by methanogenic bacterial action.
Biogenic gas may be produced at any time
throughout the coalification process if proper
conditions are present.
Gas is stored in coal as an adsorbed component
on or within the coal matrix and as free gas
within the micropore structure or cleats within a
coal bed.
The gas is held in place mainly by reservoir
pressure; reducing the reservoir pressure allows
gas to be released from the coal.

CLEATS
Coal is very porous but has low
permeability (connected openings)
Most coals contain methane but cannot be
economically produced without the
presence of open natural fractures
(CLEATS)
Cleats allow the desorbed gas to flow to
the well bore

 India is the third largest producer of coal in

the world. If effectively recovered, coalbed methane gas associated with coal
reserves and emitted during coal mining
could be a significant potential source of
energy in coal-rich but often economically
poor regions. Utilization of Coal-Bed
Methane (CBM) would introduce a clean
energy source and reduce local pollution
and emissions of greenhouse gases.

Status of coal bed methane in India

The prospect for coal bed methane is mainly
related to the coal resources of the country.
India has huge Gondwana (mainly Permian,
99.5%) and Tertiary (Eocene and Oligocene)
coal deposits distributed in several basins
located in peninsular and extra-peninsular
regions.
About 204 billion tons of coal reserves have
been established and approximately 200 million
tons or so are likely to be added in the near
future by further explorations.

 The main Gondwana coal basins are rifted

intra-cratonic grabens having thick sequence
of coal seams, and hold considerable
prospects for coal bed methane.
The major part of Indian Gondwana coals
(mostly up to 300 m depth) is of low rank, far
below the threshold value of thermogenic
methane generation.
However, high rank coals, amenable for
generation of coal bed methane, mostly
occur in untapped deeper parts of basins
covered by younger sediments.

 Tertiary coals of India, occurring mainly in

lagoonal to deltaic sediments, are better in
quality compared to Gondwana coals,
though the seams are thinner.
On the basis of composition and rank of
coal, Tertiary coals appear to be
moderately rich in coal bed methane.
The estimated coal bed methane resource
of Gondwana coals appears to be
between 1 and 1.5 Tcm and the Tertiary
coals of about 4.3 Bcm.

 In 1990, efforts to exploit coal bed methane were

initiated by Essar Oil (a private oil company)
under the advice of American experts.
The methane emission and desorption studies
on Gondwana coal samples from Jharia
Coalfield (Bihar) were carried out by Central
Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited
(Ranchi) and Central Mining Research Institute
(Dhanbad).
The content of gas and gas emission rate from
these samples were found to be 1.8
2.3 m3/1000 m2 of surface and 12.7
17.3 m3/min, respectively.

 The studies carried out by Bharat Coking

Coal Limited in the same area with the
help of French experts indicated 0.68
1.45 m3/min gas emission rate.
In 1992, assessment of coal bed methane
potential for Damodar Valley coals was
initiated by Oil and Natural Gas
Commission.
Till date, it has collected significant data
related to coal bed methane exploration
from drills in Raniganj basin.

 Recently, ONGC for the first time in

country has succeeded in flowing the gas
from seam no. XIV in Parbatpur block of
Jharia basin.
Besides, Geological Survey of India and
Reliance Industries Limited have also
undertaken investigations on the
prospects of occurrence of coal bed
methane in different Gondwana and
Tertiary coalfields of India.

 These investigations led to the delineation

of potential areas in Damodar (Raniganj,
Jharia, Bokaro, Giridih), Son (Sohagpur)
and Pench-Kanhan-Tawa Valley (areas
lying on the dipside of the Kanhan Valley)
coalfields where a total gas-in-place
reserve of 13.34 Tcf has been predicted.
In addition, gas content of 250 Scf/ton in
an area of 900 km2 has been recorded
from Early Paleocene coal beds (50 m
thick) of Cauvery Basin by Essar Oil
Company.