Measuring spatially resolved gas transport and adsorption in coal using MRI

The storage and transport of gases in coal is of tremendous importance in the utilisation of coalbeds, and in particular the recovery of methane. There is also increasing interest in the use of coal mines as sites for carbon dioxide sequestration to alleviate the potentially harmful effects of global warming. This paper demonstrates the use of magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of gas transport in coal. The presence of significant structural heterogeneities in the coal was observed. Dynamical effects displayed a broad range of time constants ranging from minutes to days.