Distribution of Methane Enrichment Zone in Abandoned Coal Mine and Methane Drainage by Surface Vertical Boreholes: A Case Study from China
Abstract
Many abandoned mines with small gobs were produced by the old mining method in China. These gobs with different widths contain a considerable amount of methane. In this paper, FLAC3D software is used to investigate the rock mass stress distributions. Based on the stress distribution results, the methane enrichment zones (MEZ) are identified in different gobs with various widths ranging from 30 m to 180 m. The results show that the MEZ of these gobs consistently exhibit a "crab shell" shape, and the range of the MEZ in the roof of each gob is larger than that in the floor. The ranges of the MEZ increase as gob widths grow; however, the gob widths have limited impact on the ranges of the MEZ in coal pillars close to gobs. The ranges of the upper and lower boundaries of the MEZ both increase as gob widths increase, and they decrease as the distance from the middle of gobs increases. The gas can flow freely in the MEZ of gobs, and once the MEZ of a gob is extracted, the methane in the MEZ of adjacent gobs flows into that gob. Based on these results, a method is proposed and first applied to an abandoned coal mine in China by drilling surface vertical boreholes into the upper part of the MEZ of gobs. A low negative pressure of approximately -3 kPa is used for gob methane drainage. The methane in the MEZ where the borehole is located flows rapidly into the borehole at first, with a peak gas flow rate of 6.4 m3/min. Then, as the methane in this MEZ is exhausted and the methane in the MEZ of adjacent gobs fails to quickly resupply the first MEZ, the flow rate begins to decline sharply. Finally, the methane from the MEZ of adjacent gobs around the borehole flows slowly through the coal pillars. Thus, the flow rate in the borehole is stabilized at approximately 2.5 m3/min. The overall average flow rate reaches 3.5 m3/min, and the whole borehole methane extraction period lasts more than 346 days. The methane concentration is generally more than 80% and remains relatively stable.
Recommended Citation
G. Feng et al., "Distribution of Methane Enrichment Zone in Abandoned Coal Mine and Methane Drainage by Surface Vertical Boreholes: A Case Study from China," Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, vol. 34, pp. 767 - 778, Elsevier, Aug 2016.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2016.07.045
Department(s)
Mining Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Abandoned mines; Boreholes; Coal; Coal mines; Drainage; Flow of gases; Flow rate; Mining; Room and pillar mining; Stress concentration; Lower boundary; Methane concentrations; Methane drainage; Methane enrichments; Methane extraction; Mining methods; Negative pressures; Vertical borehole; Methane; Abandoned coal mine; Gob; Methane enrichment zone; Surface vertical borehole
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1875-5100
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2016 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Aug 2016
Comments
This research was supported by the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (No. 51422404), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51504160, 51574172), the Key Scientific and Technological Coal Projects of Shanxi Province (MQ2014-12), the Coalbed Methane Joint Research Foundation of Shanxi Province (2015012008), the Program for the Innovative Talents of Higher Learning Institutions of Shanxi and the Team Foundation of Taiyuan University of Technology (No. 2014TD001). This work is also a project funded by the Open Projects of State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, CUMT (14KF03).