Estimation of Gas Loss in Methodology for Determining Methane Content of Coal Seams

The determination of natural gas content in coal seams is essential to safe mining activities and to estimate gas resources. It is used to estimate methane emissions into workings, which is very important when using preventive measures of methane ignition and explosion. Methane content in a coal seam is mostly determined using a direct method. However, a problem with estimation of gas loss during collecting a sample in a mine occurs in each method. That gas loss is estimated using different procedures. In the Polish mining industry, methane content in a coal seam is mostly determined during roadway advancing faces in coal seams. The differences in procedures for determining methane content in coal in various laboratories gave rise to starting research into developing a new method. This article presents results of study of gas loss unification for the determination of methane content in coal seams. The research focused mainly on determining a uniform method for estimating gas loss using the early adsorption diffusion process. The method of coal sample saturation with methane was used to measure gas desorption rate. Saturation pressures of samples were determined for coal seams in the Upper-Silesian Coal Basin. The analysis of desorption results allowed to determine the dependence between methane content in a coal sample and the initial methane content in a coal seam. It was concluded that the desorption rate was highest within two minutes. For the procedure of coal sampling, gas loss was determined at 12% of both desorbed and residual gases. The presented research results gave rise to developing a uniform method for determining gas content used in Polish coal mining. The method was accepted as the national standard. Methodology using a new gas loss estimation procedure allows for achieving relatively fast results of the determination of methane content in coal seams, which is very important, especially in gassy mines.