A modified Guggenheim-Anderson-Boer model for analyzing water sorption in coal

Abstract

The presence of water can alter the mechanical properties of coal, which may not only cause roof falls during the coal mining process but also affect the hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs. The nature of water adsorption properties in unconventional reservoir rocks has been the subject of several recent papers. However, the adsorption properties and adsorption mechanism of water in coal have not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we carried out water vapor sorption experiments on four coal samples of different maturities. We found no linear relationship between maturity and water adsorption capacity. Furthermore, we proposed that the water adsorption mechanism in coal can be divided into two types: attached to oxygen functional groups and pore filling, which occur in hydrophilic pores and hydrophobic pores, respectively. Based on the above hypothesis, a modified Guggenheim-Anderson-Boer model was proposed to interpret water adsorption isotherms. It was concluded that the differences in the water adsorption characteristics of different coals under high humidity conditions were caused by the pore volume and the proportion of hydrophilic pores. We further analyzed the influence mechanism of water adsorption on methane adsorption under high relative humidity conditions. We found that the influence of water adsorption on methane adsorption in coal can be attributed to the water adsorption amount and proportion of hydrophilic pores.