ASSESSMENT OF ISTRIAN COAL BED METHANE PRODUCTION POSSIBILITY

The potential of coal bed methane has not been evaluated in Croatia so far. For several selected sites in Labin basin data on the composition of coal and the depths and thicknesses of coal layers were collected. Assessment and comparison of the methane content in coal by using the Langmuir isotherm, the general curves of sorption and Kim's method was made and evaluation of the quality of each assessment as well. The analysis resulted with coal bed methane content between 9.5m3/t 11.73m3/t calculated by Kim's equation. By comparing the sorption of pure methane and sorption of CO2, in order to maintain the pressure in a coal bed and higher recovery of methane, the CO2 could be one of the options for injecting fluid. Geometry of coal layers was not defined and therefore it is not possible to estimate the total content of methane.