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Effects of tectonism on the pore characteristics and methane diffusion coefficient of coal

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Abstract

The diffusion coefficient of methane in coal is a key parameter that influences the methane extraction effect. Former studies on the methane diffusion coefficient mainly paid attention to the intact coal. The diffusion coefficient of tectonic coal is different from that of intact coal, which may be caused by the effect of tectonism on the pore characteristics. In this study, the pore characteristics of the intact coal and tectonic coal were tested using mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and the physisorption method, while the counterdiffusion experiments were adopted to measure the methane diffusion coefficients of both coal samples. The results indicate that the methane diffusion coefficient of the tectonic coal is higher than that of the intact coal, and the diffusion coefficients decrease with the increasing methane pressure. The tectonism increases the volumes of mesopores and macropores and the porosity of coal, which is the main reason for the higher methane diffusion coefficient of the tectonic coal. The pore structure of coal becomes more winding or complicated by tectonism, thus showing a higher tortuosity of the tectonic coal. The tectonism makes it easier to extract methane, and coal mining in the tectonic region should receive more attention.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Mengting Zhu for providing language polishing for this paper.

Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51704045).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, Jiangsu, China

    Jun Dong, Juncheng Jiang & Pinkun Guo

  2. Key Laboratory of Safety Production of Chemical Process (Ministry of Emergency Management), Nanjing, 211816, Jiangsu, China

    Jun Dong, Juncheng Jiang & Pinkun Guo

  3. School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Yuanping Cheng

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  1. Jun Dong
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  2. Yuanping Cheng
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  3. Juncheng Jiang
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Correspondence to Yuanping Cheng.

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Responsible Editor: Santanu Banerjee

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Dong, J., Cheng, Y., Jiang, J. et al. Effects of tectonism on the pore characteristics and methane diffusion coefficient of coal. Arab J Geosci 13, 482 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-05475-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-05475-8

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