Analyzing slippage coefficients and intrinsic permeabilities of
dissimilar Indian coals considering their pore-size distributions:
implications to CO2 storage in coal seams
Abstract
Gas transport in dominantly microporous rocks such as coal, shale is
significantly controlled by Klinkenberg or slippage effect at low
reservoir pressures. Pore size fractions of the concerned reservoir rock
control the degree of Klingenberg effect. This study tries to assess the
differences in Klinkenberg effect in dissimilar coals owing to their
difference in pore-size distributions. We report apparent permeabilities
of three Gondowana coal samples from the Bokaro, Jharia, and Bansgara
coalfields at room temperature and constant isostatic stress (6.2 MPa).
The linear plots of apparent permeability versus inverse pore pressure
were modelled using the Klinkenberg equation, and non-linear plots by
the Ashrafi equation to determine the slippage coefficient and intrinsic
permeabilities. Ashrafi model reports lower values of slippage corrected
permeability compared to the Klinkenberg model. The slippage coefficient
and intrinsic permeability obtained from N2 and CO2 is different for the
Bansgara sample. The trends between transport parameters and pore-size
parameters were examined. The slippage coefficient decreased with
interconnected porosity and total specific pore volume. Intrinsic
permeabilities showed an opposite trend to that of the slippage
coefficient. The Bansgara sample having larger volumetric proportion of
micropores in the pore volume gamut with open ended interconnected pore
network resulted in the lowest slippage coefficient and
highest intrinsic permeabiliity. Reporting the slippage coefficients and
intrinsic permeabilities with corresponding pore size distributions of
coal samples from different global basins will lead to statistically
significant empirical relationships between pore size parameters and
slippage coefficients.