MULTIPHASE FLOW EXPERIMENTS IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THE BEHAVIOUR OF (PARTLY) SATURATED COALS AS A GAS RESERVOIR: EXAMPLES
Delft University of Technology, Department of Applied Earth Sciences, Dietz Laboratory, Mijnbouwstraat 120, 2628 RX Delft, The Netherlands. k.h.a.a.wolf@ta.tudelft.nl
Delft University of Technology, Department of Applied Earth Sciences, Dietz Laboratory, Mijnbouwstraat 120, 2628 RX Delft, The Netherlands
Delft University of Technology, Department of Applied Earth Sciences, Dietz Laboratory, Mijnbouwstraat 120, 2628 RX Delft, The Netherlands
Abstract
The use of coal seams as reservoirs implies that new ways of coal characterization are required. The storage capacity of coal has to be related to the ability of gases and fluid to migrate through a coal seam. Sorption and diffusion behaviour of the matrix and the cleat related Darcy permeability are the most important parameters for the determination of its reservoir properties. A new method for assessment of interfacial phenomena associated with carbon dioxide and methane transport/sorption processes in coals is presented. The article describes two innovative kinds of laboratory experiments. The flushing experiments characterize the flow properties of a solid coal core under simulated in-situ conditions. The pendant drop cell experiment characterizes the interactions of coal, water, carbon dioxide and methane. For that reason the equipment and experimental procedures of two flushing devices and the set-up of a transformed pendant-drop cell are explained. Besides procedures, technical difficulties, pitfalls and general interpretations are discussed in experimental examples. One of the major issues is, “how the experimental results are combined with known geo-parameters, in order to be used as input parameters at cleat and fi eld scale�?.