Modeling Framework for Biogenic Methane Formation from Coal

Abstract

In situ biodegradation of coal to methane offers an innovative and attractive alternative to the prevailing methods of harnessing the energy potential of coal. This alternative approach employs a community of microorganisms to biologically generate methane from unmined coal and has the promise of causing less pollution, reducing the environmental impact of mining, and being potentially less expensive.(9,10,15−18) The goal of our work is to develop a novel, comprehensive, and quantitative mathematical modeling framework to better understand the process of biogenic methane formation from coal. Intermediate chemical species and metabolic pathways are identified using existing literature information and are incorporated into a lumped kinetic model, referred to as the Coal to Methane (C2M) Kinetic Model. Several intermediate compounds have been lumped into polyaromatics (PACs), long chain fatty acids (LCFAs), and mid chain fatty acids (MCFAs), etc. The simulations of the model and sensitivity analysis along wi...