Component fractionation of temporal evolution in adsorption-desorption for binary gas mixtures on coals from Haishiwan Coal Mine

Adsorption-desorption experiments on CO2-CH4 gas mixtures with varying compositions have been conducted to study the fractionation characteristics of CO2-CH4 on Haishiwan coal samples. These were carried out at constant temperature but different equilibrium pressure conditions. Based on these experimental results, the temporal evolution of component fractionation in the field was investigated. The results show that the CO2 concentration in the adsorbed phase is always greater than that in the original gas mixture during the desorption process, while CH4 shows the opposite characteristics. This has confirmed that CO2 , with a greater adsorption ability has a predominant position in the competition with CH4 under different pressures. Where gas drainage is employed, the ratio of CO2 to CH4 varies with time and space in floor roadways used for gas drainage, and in the ventilation air in Nos.1 and 2 coal seams, which is consistent with laboratory results.

Rapid decompression and desorption induced energetic failure in coal

In this study, laboratory experiments are conducted to investigate the rapid decompression and desorption induced energetic failure in coal using a shock tube apparatus. Coal specimens are recovered from Colorado at a depth of 610 m. The coal specimens are saturated with the strong sorbing gas CO2 for a certain period and then the rupture disc is suddenly broken on top of the shock tube to generate a shock wave propagating upwards and a rarefaction wave propagating downwards through the specimen.This rapid decompression and desorption has the potential to cause energetic fragmentation in coal.Three types of behaviors in coal after rapid decompression are found, i.e. degassing without fragmentation, horizontal fragmentation, and vertical fragmentation. We speculate that the characteristics of fracture network（e.g. aperture, spacing, orientation and stiffness） and gas desorption play a role in this dynamic event as coal can be considered as a dual porosity, dual permeability, dual stiffness sorbing medium. This study has important implications in understanding energetic failure process in underground coal mines such as coal gas outbursts.

Temperature influence on macro-mechanics parameter of intact coal sample containing original gas from Baijiao Coal Mine in China

Investigation of temperature effect on mechanical parameters of coal is very important for understanding the mechanical response of coal bed at high temperature.It is especially benefcial for mitigating the thermal-induced disasters occurred in those coal mines suffering from heat hazard.In this work,coal samples,obtained from the No.2442 working face of Baijiao Coal Mine,were subjected to uniaxial compression ranging from 20 to 40℃ with an interval of 5℃.The apparatus used was designed to obtain deformation of a stressed sample,as well as the emission of gases desorbing from coal matrix.The adsorbed gas desorption caused by heating is measured during the entire testing.It is evident that the concentrations of releasing gas(containing methane,carbon dioxide and ethane)slightly rise with increasing temperature.Gas movement observed is closely related to the deformation of coal sample.Both uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of coal samples tend to reduce with temperature.It reveals that increasing temperature can not only result in thermal expansion of coal,but also lead to desorption of preexisting gas in coal which can in turns harden coal due to shrinks of the coal matrix.Even though desorption of adsorbed gas can contribute to the hardening effect for the heated coal,by comparison to the results,it could be inferred that the softening of coal resulted from thermal expansion still predominates changes in mechanical characters of coal sample with temperature at the range from20 to 40℃.