126 / 2021-09-30 23:21:58

MEGAPlus: Unconventional Methane Production from Combined CBM-UCG Technology under the EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS)

underground coal gasification, CBM, methane

The underground coal gasification process (UCG) involves the injection of an oxidizer (i.e. steam and air or oxygen) into an underground coal seam and igniting and combusting of coal in-situ to produce a synthesis gas which is mainly composed of, methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide. The syngas is drawn off to fuel directly power generation plants or as chemical feedstock.



Over the last years, most of the UCG programmes have been focused on producing specific chemical feedstock or in-situ gasification of shallow deposits of low rank coals at relatively low-pressure conditions. As coal seams get deeper, the in-situ methane content would generally increase accordingly under increasingly higher hydrostatic pressure. Coal seams at greater depths also have the potential to yield higher methane concentrations in the produced gas due to high pressure UCG reactions. Therefore, coupling coalbed methane extraction (CBM) from deep and high gas content coals with subsequent coal utilisation through UCG-SNG have both technical and economic advantages via the reuse of same infrastructure for the two production processes.



The study of Unconventional Methane Production from Deep European Coal Seams through combined Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) technologies known as MEGAPlus, is a €3m EU funded project by the Polish Central Mining Institute, and seven  other European Institutions. Its aim was evaluation of the use of deep lying, methane rich coal deposits for coalbed methane (CBM) and enhanced coalbed methane (ECBM) recovery using horizontal wells, coupled with subsequent high pressure methane-oriented underground coal gasification (UCG) through the reuse of the same horizontal wells.



The project includeed a balanced combination of experimental and modelling research activities. Since, the project takes a radical and holistic approach to coupled CBM-UCG process, beyond state-of-the-art, high-pressure gasification tests, advanced numerical simulations, techno-economic, environmental and risk assessments were developed and employed to investigate site-specific CBM-UCG implementations.



A wide range of gasification tests were undertaken. For this purposes, both a bespoke High Pressure High Temperature Rig (at Cardiff University) as well as the GIG’s large scale, high-pressure (5 MPa) experimental unit were used to conduct UCG tests operated at almost in-situ pressure conditions with the aim to study the reaction kinetics favourable for methane-rich syngas production. Experimental results obtained under pressure regimes up to 5MPa were then extrapolated to prospective depths. High-pressure gasification tests were conducted using large bulk coal samples, representative for deep Upper Silesian coals and extracted from active mines operated by PGG.



The scientific problem statement of MEGAPlus, project methodologies and scientific approaches used as well as the major project outcomes and innovations are comprehensively provided in this paper.