Scholarlink

Coal bed methane is one of the unconventional natural gas sources that is now being explored as a potential addition to India’s energy supply. The International Energy Agency predicts that India’s demand for natural gas will increase by 60% by 2030. One of the most attractive and feasible locations for coal bed methane development is the Jharia coal field in India, where the coal seams have been classified as degree II and III gassy seams for decades. For a century, Tata Steel Limited has been mining low moisture, low to medium volatile bituminous coking coal for its steel plant’s captive use, from the Jamadoba Group of collieries located at the Jharia coalfield. The exploratory data shows that the in-situ gas content of the coal seams at shallow depths between 0 and 300 m and at greater depths between 1015–1100 m has a low gas content average of 1.87m3/ton and 1.84 m3/ton, whereas in between depth 300 m to 1015 m, the gas content has increased. The in-situ gas content is low, average 1.72 m3/ton for some of the coal seams which were fully affected by igneous intrusion that results in conversion into natural coke; the shaly coal has an average gas content of 3.86 m3/ton, followed by coal with average gas content of 4.48 m3/ton and partially heat-affected coal (transitional zone between natural coke and coal) with average. gas content of 7.38 m3/ton. The composition of the coal gas is analyzed, and the concentration of methane is greater than 94% with other alkanes as measured in different coal seams. The maceral vitrinite has the higher methane adsorption capacity; it has been analyzed that the vitrinite content for the upper and middle coal seams is greater than 40%, whereas for the lower coal seams, the vitrinite content is less than 40%. The coal seams are having vitrinite reflectance, Rr in-between 0.88% and 1.69%, which is within the window for effective methane gas generation. For the Jamadoba group of collieries at Jharia coal field, the findings are encouraging to undertake further exploration and meticulous planning for the development of the virgin coal seams for coal bed methane. Though drilling long-lasting, stable production wells through coal seam workings and exploiting the lower pack of virgin seams is a significant challenge.

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Prospect of Coal Bed Methane at JAMADOBA Group of Collieries, JHARIA Coalfield

  • 会议论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年

查看全文
  • Koushik Mahanta,
  • Parveen Khattri,
  • Pudi Srinivasa Rao

摘要

Coal bed methane is one of the unconventional natural gas sources that is now being explored as a potential addition to India’s energy supply. The International Energy Agency predicts that India’s demand for natural gas will increase by 60% by 2030. One of the most attractive and feasible locations for coal bed methane development is the Jharia coal field in India, where the coal seams have been classified as degree II and III gassy seams for decades. For a century, Tata Steel Limited has been mining low moisture, low to medium volatile bituminous coking coal for its steel plant’s captive use, from the Jamadoba Group of collieries located at the Jharia coalfield. The exploratory data shows that the in-situ gas content of the coal seams at shallow depths between 0 and 300 m and at greater depths between 1015–1100 m has a low gas content average of 1.87m3/ton and 1.84 m3/ton, whereas in between depth 300 m to 1015 m, the gas content has increased. The in-situ gas content is low, average 1.72 m3/ton for some of the coal seams which were fully affected by igneous intrusion that results in conversion into natural coke; the shaly coal has an average gas content of 3.86 m3/ton, followed by coal with average gas content of 4.48 m3/ton and partially heat-affected coal (transitional zone between natural coke and coal) with average. gas content of 7.38 m3/ton. The composition of the coal gas is analyzed, and the concentration of methane is greater than 94% with other alkanes as measured in different coal seams. The maceral vitrinite has the higher methane adsorption capacity; it has been analyzed that the vitrinite content for the upper and middle coal seams is greater than 40%, whereas for the lower coal seams, the vitrinite content is less than 40%. The coal seams are having vitrinite reflectance, Rr in-between 0.88% and 1.69%, which is within the window for effective methane gas generation. For the Jamadoba group of collieries at Jharia coal field, the findings are encouraging to undertake further exploration and meticulous planning for the development of the virgin coal seams for coal bed methane. Though drilling long-lasting, stable production wells through coal seam workings and exploiting the lower pack of virgin seams is a significant challenge.