Coalbed methane as a clean energy resources

Sohei SHIMADA, Dept. of Environment Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo

Coalbed methane (CBM) is methane stored in coal. CBM has many features in different industries. For example, in coal mining industry, CBM (or more precisely, Coal Mine Methane: CMM) has been a cause of gas explosion, which brings the great disaster to coal mines. On the other hand CBM is regarded as a new natural gas resources in natural gas and oil industry. New degasifying technology to recover CMM in coal mines and new ventilation air utilization technology has increased the recovery rate and the reduced the emission of methane from coal mines. New drilling technology applicable to  low permeability coal seam has been developed. This technology has improved the economy of CBM production for the low permeability coal seams.

This paper summarizes the recent CBM production and utilization technology and future aspects of CBM development.