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Water Adsorption Characteristics of Coal with Different Particle Sizes: Experimental and Modeling Analyses

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Abstract

There is a large amount of water in coal pores in the form of adsorption, which is referred to as adsorbed water. The adsorbed water can negatively affect gas adsorption and migration, thus affecting coalbed methane production and the geological storage of carbon dioxide in coal. Much research has been done to investigate the properties of adsorbed water using powder samples. However, it is still unclear how particle size influences water adsorption in coal. In this study, water adsorption experiments were carried out to examine the water adsorption characteristics of coal with different particle sizes. The modified Dent model and a kinetics model were utilized to interpret water adsorption in coal with varying maturity levels. It was found that smaller particle size leads to higher micropore volume and micropore surface area of samples, which could be the reason that smaller particles have higher water adsorption rates and water adsorption amounts. Besides, it was also found that the change in particle size has a weaker impact on the overall water adsorption amount of high-rank coal compared to that of low-rank coal. Therefore, water adsorption properties measured by particles may not be applicable to real coal blocks, especially for low-maturity coals. However, it was found that the change in particle size eventually leads to the same difference in the flow rate of different samples. This study deepens the understanding of water adsorption mechanism in coal with typical particle sizes.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42125205) and the China Scholarship Council (202106400011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Hao Wu & Yanbin Yao

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Unconventional Natural Gas Geology Evaluation and Development Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Hao Wu & Yanbin Yao

  3. Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77023, USA

    Xuejia Du

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Correspondence to Yanbin Yao.

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Appendix: Error Analysis Parameters

Appendix: Error Analysis Parameters

$${\text{SEE}} = \sqrt {\frac{{\sum \left( {q_{{\text{e}}} - q_{{\text{p}}} } \right)^{2} }}{N}}$$
$${\text{RSS}} = \sum \left( {q_{{\text{e}}} - q_{{\text{p}}} } \right)^{2}$$
$${\text{ARE}} = \sum \left| {\frac{{q_{{\text{e}}} - q_{{\text{p}}} }}{{q_{{\text{e}}} }}} \right|$$
$$\chi^{2} = \sum \frac{{\left( {q_{{\text{e}}} - q_{{\text{p}}} } \right)^{2} }}{{q_{{\text{e}}} }}$$

where \({q}_{\mathrm{e}}\) and \({q}_{\mathrm{p}}\) experimental and fitted data, respectively, and N is the number of data points.

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Wu, H., Yao, Y. & Du, X. Water Adsorption Characteristics of Coal with Different Particle Sizes: Experimental and Modeling Analyses. Nat Resour Res 32, 717–729 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-023-10171-x

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