Permeability of Indian coal

Abstract

Now-a-days there is much constraint being faced by coal mine operators from multiple stake holders. Those are local inhabitants, environmental activists, government regulatory bodies, etc. It has focused attention to develop alternate approaches to extract coal resource. Coal bed methane drainage and carbon dioxide sequestration is one of such mechanism. Determination of the permeability of coal seams has a huge bearing on the identification and selection of viable sites for carbon sequestration. In this study an attempt was made to find out the permeability of coal from Ib Valley area of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited. Samples were collected from a local mine and cores were prepared according to standard procedures. An experimental setup was designed and fabricated based on the constant head method of permeability determination and tests were carried out on the samples for over a period of time. The results obtained were compared with values reported by others’ and it was found that the setup gave a reasonable measure of the permeability of the sample.