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CO2 may serve dual purpose in CBM wellsCO2 may serve dual purpose in CBM wellsMonday, July 12, 2010 By MJ Clark WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE), with its partners, has begun field testing a theory that carbon dioxide (CO2) can help enhance recovery of coalbed methane at the same time that it is being sequestered in the well. The usefulness of CO2 to revitalize production in oil wells has been well documented in Wyoming and elsewhere. The DOE's Fossilized Energy Office announced that members of the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership are injecting CO2 into a coalbed methane well in Alabama to determine if mature reservoirs can hold significant volumes of CO2. According to the DOE webpage, the current practice for extracting methane from the coal seam is to depressurize the well by pumping out the water. The water is not always welcome on the surface, as it often has salts and other minerals dissolved in it. An alternative means of extracting methane is to pump CO2 gas into the bed. Tests have shown that the adsorption rate for CO2 is approximately twice that of methane, giving it the potential to displace methane and remain sequestered in the coal bed. Being able to recover and sell additional methane during the CO2 sequestration process can provide this option with a lower net cost than using deep saline formations. |
