Przegląd technologii pozyskania metanu ze zlikwidowanych kopalń węgla w Polsce

Artykuł omawia modele pozyskania metanu ze zrobów zlikwidowanych kopalń węgla i przedstawia polskie doświadczenia w tym zakresie na tle charakterystyki zmian własności zbiornikowych formacji węglonośnych w wyniku eksploatacji węgla kamiennego.

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Technologies used to acquire methane from goafs in abandoned mines strictly depend on local circumstances. Therefore, the article only presents general models used to capture methane. These models can be divided into methane capture from underground excavations adjacent to goafs of working mines and methane capture with the use of boreholes from the surface. The former involves the installation of methane capture piping in goafs or abandoned shafts or development of goafs from adjacent underground excavations, while the latter involves drilling boreholes from the surface and the connection of piping or boreholes to the mine methane recovery station or a separate compressor. Methane capture from the surface features the drilling of vertical boreholes to develop goafs or to develop a sequence of boreholes into reservoir rocks located over fully-exploited coalbeds and hydraulically connected with these coalbeds. In Poland, successful attempts at methane capture from goafs using each of the above-mentioned models were made in Czyżowice and Jankowice-Wschód deposits, the “Bzia-Dębiny” elevation, and “1 Maja”, “Moszczenica” and “Żory” abandoned mines. Total methane extraction from abandoned mines is estimated to be approx. 80 million m3, including 37.0 million m3 of methane captured using surface boreholes. If one also were to include methane capture from goafs of working mines (approx. 830 million m3), it is obvious that methane capture from after-exploitation mine (both working and abandoned) goafs is a beneficial way to extract coalbed methane. Combined with coal exploitation, methane capture would help to make use of the enhancement of coal reservoir properties, which are generally unfavourable in intact rock, by methane capture.