Kinetics of Gas Phase CO2 Adsorption on Bituminous Coal from a Shallow Coal Seam

Abstract

This article examines the CO2 adsorption–desorption kinetics of bituminous coal under low pressure injection (0.5 MPa) in the context of CO2 sequestration in shallow level coal seams. This study used two different sizes of intact core samples of bituminous samples from seam no. 30 at the Experimental Mine Barbara (EMB) in Katowice, Poland. Manometric adsorption kinetics experiments were conducted on 50 mm dia. 60 mm long coal core samples (referred to as EMB1) and 50 mm dia. 30 mm long coal core samples (referred to as EMB2). The kinetics of adsorption at injection pressures ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 MPa were compared to those at elevated pressures ranging from 0.5 to 4.5 MPa. For the first time, intact sample adsorption–desorption data were fitted in pseudo first order (PFO), pseudo second order (PSO), and Bangham pore diffusion models. The PSO model fits the data better than the PFO model, indicating that bulk pore diffusion, surface interaction, and multilayer adsorption are the rate-determining steps. Comparing the equilibrium amount of adsorbed (qe) obtained for the powdered samples (9.06 g of CO2/kg of coal at 0.52 MPa) with intact samples (11.68 g/kg at 0.53 MPa and 7.58 g/kg at 0.52 MPa for the intact EMB1 and EMB2 samples) showed the importance of conducting experiments with intact samples. The better fit obtained with the Bangham model for lower pressure equilibrium pressures (up to 0.5 MPa) compared to higher pressure equilibrium pressures (4.5 MPa) indicates that bulk pore diffusion is the rate-determining step at lower pressures and surface interaction takes over at higher pressures. The amount of CO2 trapped within the coal structure following the desorption experiments strengthens the case for intact bituminous coal samples’ pore trapping capabilities.