Coalbed methane in the Ruhr Basin, Germany: a renewable energy resource?

Abstract

Around the globe underground hard coal mining leads to a release of methane into the atmosphere. About 7% of the global annual methane emissions originate from coal mining. In the year 2002, 16 countries used coal gas to generate heat and electricity. In many cases, the exact size of coalbed methane reservoirs is not identified. The possibility of a long-term gas production and its profitability at single sites are unknown. To clarify these points, the processes of gas generation as well as the gas-in-place volume have to be determined. Both issues are tackled here for the Ruhr basin. Within this basin, coal gas samples were taken at 13 gas production sites, spread over three samplings within 14 months. There were virtually no changes in the concentrations of gas components at single sites within this period. The isotope composition of methane ( δ 13C-methane: −40.0 to −57.3‰ vs. PDB) revealed that the produced methane is a mixture of gases of thermogenic and microbial origin. The microbial contribution of methane seems to be more pronounced at sites of active and especially abandoned coal mining than at unmined places. Ethane and propane are of thermogenic origin, with ethane's isotopic composition tending to heavier values (richer in 13C) with time. This time-dependent phenomenon is interpreted as being caused by desorption. In addition, living methanogenic archaea were detected in mine water samples from depths down to 1200 m.