ECBM Implementation Challenges

Jaco Liebenberg¹, Martin Waterhouse², and Liesl Halley^1
1Sasol Petroleum International, Johannesburg, South Africa
²Sasol Petroleum International, London, United Kingdom

Geological sequestration is recognized by the IPCC as one of the viable means to mitigate GHG impacts. Geological sequestration relies on the subsurface storage of Carbon Dioxide in a suitable geological structure. Structures that are suitable for storage include oil and gas reservoirs, coal beds, salt domes or caverns and deep saline formations.

Enhanced Coal Bed Methane, or ECBM for short, describes the process of utilizing the favourable Methane retention capacities of coalbeds to store Carbon Dioxide. This process is used in concert with Coal Bed Methane (CBM) production. Although the utilization and development of CBM is well established in the US, Canada, and Australia and under active development in India and China, the development and deployment of ECBM has been limited globally to a number of demonstration projects.

The most cited and public ECBM pilot project is the Allison project performed by Burlington Resources in the San Juan basin, New Mexico. The results from this test clearly indicated the positive benefits associated with Carbon Dioxide injection into a CBM field. Other pilots of various scales and durations were performed in Canada, China, Poland and Japan. Despite the apparent attractiveness and demonstrated, albeit limited, capability of ECBM it has yet to reach widespread adoption. Recently the US DOE seven regional partnership programs announced the initiation of further ECBM demonstration projects.

This paper attempts to highlight issues for the adoption of ECBM by examining the key findings of all the pilot projects, technical and economic considerations. Finally all the issues are placed in a Southern African context in order to support some recommendations to promote the development of the technology for local needs.

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