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The effect of organics transformation and migration on pore structure of bituminous coal and lignite during biomethane production

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Abstract  

Biomethane generation by coal degradation not only can increase coalbed methane (CBM) reserves, namely, microbially enhanced coalbed methane (MECBM), but also has a significant effect on the pore structure of coal which is the key factor in CBM extraction. The transformation and migration of organics in coal are essential to pore development under the action of microorganisms. Here, the biodegradation of bituminous coal and lignite to produce methane and the cultivation with inhibition of methanogenic activity by 2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES) were performed to analyze the effect of biodegradation on coal pore development by determining the changes of the pore structure and the organics in culture solution and coal. The results showed that the maximum methane productions from bituminous coal and lignite were 117.69 μmol/g and 166.55 μmol/g, respectively. Biodegradation mainly affected the development of micropore whose specific surface area (SSA) and pore volume (PV) decreased while the fractal dimension increased. After biodegradation, various organics were generated which were partly released into culture solution while a large number of them remained in residual coal. The content of newly generated heterocyclic organics and oxygen-containing aromatics in bituminous coal was 11.21% and 20.21%. And the content of heterocyclic organics in bituminous coal was negatively correlated with SSA and PV but positively correlated with the fractal dimension which suggested that the retention of organics contributed greatly to the decrease of pore development. But the retention effect on pore structure was relatively poor in lignite. Besides, microorganisms were observed around fissures in both coal samples after biodegradation which would not be conducive to the porosity of coal on the micron scale. These results revealed that the effect of biodegradation on pore development of coal was governed by the combined action of organics degradation to produce methane and organics retention in coal whose contributions were antagonistic and determined by coal rank and pore aperture. The better development of MECBM needs to enhance organics biodegradation and reduce organics retention in coal.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1810103, 51404163), Key R&D program of Shanxi Province (International Cooperation, 201903D421088), and coal seam gas Joint Foundation of Shanxi (2014012006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Safety and Emergency Management and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    **ao Feng, Panpan Zhang, Zizhong Zhang, Hongguang Guo & Zhigang Li

  2. Key Laboratory of In-Situ Property-Improving Mining of Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    **ao Feng, Panpan Zhang, Zizhong Zhang, Hongguang Guo & Zhigang Li

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

    Zaixing Huang

  4. Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA

    Michael Urynowicz

  5. Environmental Microbiology Lab, Department of Microbiology, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan

    Muhammad Ishtiaq Ali

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  1. **ao Feng
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  2. Panpan Zhang
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  3. Zizhong Zhang
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  4. Hongguang Guo
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Contributions

**ao Feng: writing (original draft), writing (review and editing). Panpan Zhang: investigation. Zizhong Zhang: writing (review and editing). Hongguang Guo: conceptualization, writing (review and editing), funding acquisition, supervision. ZL, ZH, MU, and MA: writing (review and editing).

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Correspondence to Hongguang Guo.

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Feng, X., Zhang, P., Zhang, Z. et al. The effect of organics transformation and migration on pore structure of bituminous coal and lignite during biomethane production. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 82834–82850 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27945-8

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