Methane emission from flooded coal seams in abandoned mines, in the light of laboratory investigations

Overview & Synopsis

Field experience from the flooding operations of the abandoned gassy mines, shown that the presence of water and related to it hydrostatic pressure limits the desorption and migration of methane from the unexploited seams destressed by mining. However, in the scientific literature, there is no information, being of importance from the point of view of mining practice, on detailed description of mechanisms involved. In connection with the above, over the years 2004-2005, the INERIS Institute (France) and Central Mining Institute (Poland) carried out joint laboratory tests aimed at determining the relationships in the system 'coal-gas-water', in the context of the flooding of unexploited gassy coal seams in abandoned mines.