Accessibility of Pores in Coal to Methane and Carbon Dioxide

Published

January 1, 2012

Author(s)

Yuri B. Melnichenko, Lilin He, Richard Sakurovs, Arkady L. Kholodenko, Tomasz Blach, Maria Mastalerz, Andrzej P. Radlinski, Gang Cheng, David F. Mildner

Abstract

Fluid-solid interactions in natural and engineered porous solids underlie a variety of technological processes, including geological storage of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, enhanced coal bed methane recovery, membrane separation, and heterogeneous catalysis. The size, distribution and interconnectivity of pores, the chemistry of the solid and physical properties of fluids collectively dictate how they migrate into and through these micro- and mesoporous media, adsorb and ultimately react with the solid surfaces. Here we demonstrate that small-angle neutron scattering can be used for quantifying the pore volume that is actually accessible to fluids as a function of pore sizes. We apply this novel approach to determine the fraction of meso- and macropores in several coals that are accessible to greenhouse gases - methane and carbon dioxide.

Citation

Fuel

Volume

91

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

coal porosity, enhanced coal bed methane recovery, fluid saturated porous systems, geological storage, green house gases, high pressure cell, pore accessibility, small-angle neutron scattering, zero average contrast

Citation

Melnichenko, Y. , He, L. , Sakurovs, R. , Kholodenko, A. , Blach, T. , Mastalerz, M. , Radlinski, A. , Cheng, G. and Mildner, D. (2012), Accessibility of Pores in Coal to Methane and Carbon Dioxide, Fuel, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=907495 (Accessed April 30, 2024)