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CO2 assisted fracking

• Increased methane (CH4) and other hydrocarbon production due to enhanced
fracturing (CO2 may liquefy due to strong Joule-Thompson cooling effect).
• Better displacement of gas from lower-porosity fractures, reduced pore
blocking, desorption of CH4 from organic inclusions (CO2 preferentially
adsorbs onto shale).
• Heavier hydrocarbons becoming miscible with the CO2, elimination of
injection and flow-back water.
• A common theme to these processes is the increased sequestration of CO2
during the fracture process. For example, understanding how to increase CH4
production through desorption is synonymous with increasing CO2 storage.
• Potential drawbacks include the increased expense of capturing-pressurizing-
transporting sCO2, extracting the hydrocarbons from the flow-back CO2, and
separating/re-pressurizing the flow-back CO2.

CO2 phase diagram

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scCO2 assisted fracking

Biocides, surfactants, scale inhibitors and many other fracturing-fluid additives
may be unnecessary if scCO2 is used as the working fluid.
However, an increase in viscosity may be required if scCO2 must carry
proppant.
scCO2 may also more effectively fracture rock due to coupled compressibility-
thermal shock effects. Specifically, strong Joule-Thompson cooling may enhance
rock fracturing due to thermal stress created as CO2 expands into a new fracture
volume and cools the crack tip.
Assuming the shale formation is ultimately pressurized with CO2 to 150 bar, as
much as 300 standard cubic feet (SCF) of CO2 could be adsorbed per ton of
shale. Thus, a fully accessible shale seam 1000m x 300m x 20m could potentially
adsorb and sequester up to 1.7 x 107 SCF of CO2.

Project: Design a CO2 assisted fracking

protocol
1. Design experimental setup
2. Identify the sources of CO2
3. Plan the experiments which needs to be done
4. Clearly identify the process and provide suitable parameters
5. Prepare a process flow diagram for the process

A review of experimental apparatus for supercritical CO2 fracturing of

shale
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2021.109515

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Coalbed Methane (CBM)/ Coal Mine Gas (CMM)

Coalbed methane (or coal mine gas) is a form of natural gas and has a
worldwide resource estimated at more than 8100 tcf or 229 trillion m3
CBM resources, along with shale gas and tight gas, are considered important
unconventional natural gas sources. In recent years, CBM has accounted for
about 7% of the annual natural gas production in USA about 10% in Australia
and about 3% in China
CBM is a clean fuel because its combustion releases no toxins, produces no ash
and emits less carbon dioxide per unit of energy than the combustion of coal.
Extraction of CBM, in addition to providing economic value, also reduces the
hazard of gas explosions in coal mines.

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Origin of CBM
CBM can be either biogenic, thermogenic or mixed. Biogenic coal bed gas is
generated by the breakdown of coal organic matter by methanogenic
microorganisms at low temperature (~50C)
Low-rank coals are the starting material for microbial generation, previously
overlooked coal basins having low-rank coal have now become important targets
for CBM exploration.
There has been a lot of progress in understanding the microbial generation
pathways that transform the coal components into methane in steps.
Thermogenic gas is produced from the organic matter in coal by chemical
degradation and thermal cracking, at temperatures higher than 100C
Thermogenic gas generation commences at the high volatile bituminous rank,
where coal has vitrinite reflectance values (Ro) between (0.8 - 1.2)%

Chemistry of CBM
Above Ro of 3.0 %, the organic hydrogen in coal is severely depleted and the
remaining organic carbon is largely present in condensed aromatic structures.
Therefore, higher rank coal is expected to generate more thermogenic CBM than
relatively lower rank coal.
Some research also shows that gas can be generated at lower temperatures and
without microbial involvement as a result of mineral-mediated catalytic reactions.
The capacity to store methane increases with depth. Thus, within a given coal
rank, deep coal seams tend to have a higher methane content than shallow ones.
Basins with coal seams hosting mixed (i.e. thermogenic and biogenic) CBM
require complex exploration and production strategies.

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Methane release from coal mining

In 2006, 31% of U.S. coal was produced in underground mines, these mines
accounted for 60% of methane emissions from coal mining
Options for recovering and using methane are primarily available for
underground mines, gas recovery at surface mines may also be feasible.
Methane emissions from coal mining account for 6% of annual global methane
emissions from anthropogenic sources. China is the largest emitter, followed by
USA, Russia, and Australia.
In underground mines, methane poses a serious safety hazard for miners
because it is explosive in low concentrations (5 to 15% in air)
Methane concentrations in the mine should not exceed 1% in mine working
areas and 2% in all other locations

Methane management in coal mines

In many underground mines, methane emissions is controlled by pumping large
quantities of air through the mine in order to dilute the methane to safe levels.
The coal mine methane released to the atmosphere by the mine ventilation
system is typically below 1%.
A more eco-friendly and economic approach is to use a methane drainage
system along with ventilation system discussed above.
Drainage systems reduce the quantity of methane in the working areas by
draining the gas from the coal-bearing strata before, during, or after mining.
Today, methane drainage is a proven technology and much of the gas that is
recovered can be used in various applications.

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Vertical Pre-mining Wells

Drainage methods include vertical wells (vertical pre-mine), gob wells (vertical gob),
longhole horizontal boreholes, and horizontal and cross-measure boreholes.
Vertical pre-mining wells are the optimal method for recovering high quality gas from
the coal seam before mining operations begin and ventilation operation is started
Typically vertical wells are drilled into the coal seam several years in advance of mining
operation.
Vertical wells may require hydraulic or nitrogen fracturing of the coal seam to activate
the flow of methane, typically produce gas of over 90% purity.
However, these wells may produce large quantities of water and small volumes of
methane during the first several months they are in operation.
Methane production increases once this water is removed and the pressure in the coal
seam is lowered.

Gob Wells
In some very low permeability
coal seams, vertical wells may
not be a cost-effective
technology due to limited
methane flow.
Gob wells are drilled from the
surface to a point 10 to 50 feet
above the target seam prior to
mining.

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Vertical Well

Carbon dioxide (CO2) fracturing

CO2 fracturing is a viable fracturing method for CBM wells. However, it is
not appropriate for use in CMM wells, draining active coal mines because
high concentrations of CO2 in the mine workings are a serious hazard to
miners.
One approach to avoid formation damage associated with water-based
fracturing systems altogether is fracturing with liquid CO2, which is a non-
aqueous, non-damaging fluid. Liquid CO2 fracturing has a long track
record in Canada.
CBM wells require six to nine months of de-watering after fracture
stimulation to clean-up and begin showing significant gas production.

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Nitrogen (N2) fracturing

Gaseous nitrogen is also a non-aqueous, non-damaging fracturing fluid and is also a viable
stimulation technique in coal seams.
Nitrogen is pumped as a cryogenic liquid and then heated to form a gas prior to being injected
into the well.
Pumping nitrogen gas eliminates the possibility of transporting proppants, and as such,
nitrogen fracturing can be classified as a proppantless, nonreactive stimulation technique.
Fracturing using an aqueous-based fluid and proppant technique, usually takes a minimum of
one week and up to a month for flow back operation and thus nitrogen fracturing may be of
greatest benefit.
The use of nitrogen as a fracturing fluid may also assist in the production of CBM through the
enhanced production properties the nitrogen has with methane in the coal seam reservoir.
The dry coals found in the Alberta Basin in Canada contain very little or no water and nitrogen
is used extensively as a fracturing fluid to avoid adding water to the coal reservoir.

Coiled tubing fracturing

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How gob well works

A vacuum is frequently used on the gob wells, as mining advances under the
well, the methane-charged strata surrounding the well fractures.
Collapse of strata surrounding the coal seam creates a fractured zone known as
the "gob" area.
Methane emitted from the gob flows into the gob well and up to the surface.
Presence of vacuum give direction to flow of methane and prevents the gas to
enter the mine areas.
Initially, gob wells produce nearly pure methane. Over time, however, additional
amounts of mine air can flow into the gob area and dilute the methane.
Depending on the number and spacing of the wells, gob wells can recover an
estimated 30% to over 50% of methane emissions associated with mining

Horizontal Boreholes
Horizontal boreholes (200 - 300 ft) are drilled inside the mine and they drain
methane from the unmined areas of the coal seam.
Several hundred boreholes may be drilled within a single mine and connected to
an in-mine vacuum piping system, which transports the methane out of the
mine and to the surface.
Longhole horizontal boreholes (~1000 ft) are drilled using directional
techniques in unmined seams in advance of mining.
This technique is most effective for low permeability coal seams that require
long diffusion periods.
Cross-measure boreholes are drilled at an angle through the rock strata to
degasify the overlying and underlying rock strata surrounding the coal seam

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Examples
CNX Gas, at their southern Virginia mining operations, has drilled thirteen
in-seam long holes, the longest of which is 1,569 m (5,148 ft).
These holes were directionally drilled into virgin coal sections that were
already being drained by hydraulically fractured vertical wells.
The boreholes were drilled accurately to avoid the main fracture zones
around the vertical wells.
The total drilled distance, including sidetracks, was 22,960 m, and the
boreholes produced 31 MMcm (1.1 Bcf) of methane with no negative
impact on the vertical well production volumes.
Source: [CNX, 2007]

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Drilling and extraction techniques

Two basic drilling and completion technologies are used in CBM basins
1. Open hole with cavity and
2. Cased hole with hydraulic fracture stimulation.
In the open-hole cavity technique, a hole typically 22.2 cm in diameter is drilled
to the top of the targeted coal using a conventional drilling rig, drilling fluid etc.
Subsequently, the well is cased and cemented, and the conventional drilling rig is
removed from the well.
A custom-designed drilling/completion rig is then put into the well to drill
through the coal and create a cavity. This rig is equipped with air compressors to
inject large volumes of air into the wellbore, up to 10.3 Mpa to create cavities
The wellbore is then left open (uncemented). This technique is especially
successful in high permeability coal or over pressured areas

In hydraulic fracture stimulation, typically a hole of 20 cm in diameter is drilled

with the drilling fluid through the coal and located some distance (30 to 60 m)
below the coal to provide space for coal fines and a sump for a dewatering
pump.
Removing the water from the formation is necessary to reduce the pressure,
transform adsorbed gas into free gas and allow free gas to flow to the wellbore.
The well is cased with the casing cemented across the coal seam interval. The
coal seam is then selectively perforated and fracture stimulated.
Various fracture stimulation techniques have been developed for coals, including
various fluid types, pressures, etc.
Both the open-hole cavity and the fracture stimulation techniques have been
successfully. In most cases, CBM wells require some stimulation because gas and
water flows from coal naturally are very low.

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Water disposal
As discussed pre-mining drainage of CMM usually involves the drainage of
water from the coal seam to lower reservoir pressure, so that methane will
desorb from the coal and flow via the wellbore to the surface.
The volumes of water involved vary among coal basins around the world,
depending primarily on reservoir thickness, porosity, permeability, well spacing,
pump rates, proximity to aquiferous sandstones etc.
In the U.S., average daily water production rates from CBM wells vary from 2-5
m3 (17-42 bbl) per day to over 60 m3 (500 bbls) per day
In some regions, the water is of good enough quality to be used for irrigation,
drinking water, or industrial use.
In poor quality water areas the water contains high concentrations of salt (up to
5 times that of seawater) and must be intensively treated before use, or disposed
of by reinjection into a suitable aquifer.

Water disposal options

Mitigation technologies have focused either on disposing produced water
using underground injection or surface evaporation
• The most commonly used water disposal options include:
• Surface discharge
• Impoundments (or evaporation pits)
• Shallow and deep re-injection
• Active treatment using Reverse Osmosis (RO)
• Downhole gas/water separation

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Resource potential
The largest CBM resources are located in Russia, United States of America, China,
Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Poland, Germany and France

Production growth

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CBM reservoir evaluation

Due to different geological histories and settings, the coalbed methane
fields in North America and Australia have “sweet spots” where coal
permeability exists on a scale of hundreds of millidarcies.
However, the coal-reservoir permeability in many other countries, such as
in India/China, is often around 1 millidarcy.
From such tight coal formations, CBM production becomes challenging.
Thus gas production from the different coal seams varies significantly.
Permeability was the main influencing factor on CBM production

Reservoir evaluation from Ordos basin China

According to the macroscopic coal petrography description, mercury-

porosimetry experiments and X-CT scanning, bright coal has the largest
pore volume than those of the other coal types.
Such coal also contains developed fractures with good openness and
connectivity.
Dull coal has the most undeveloped macropores and fractures.
The No. 3 coal seam in Ordos always has a higher productivity because it
mainly consists of bright coal and semi-bright coal and has a relatively
shallow buried depth.

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Permian Shanxi Formation in China

The coal permeability ranges from 0.02 to 3.44 mD, and the reservoir
pressure ranges from 2.58 to 9.26 MPa.
Most coal pores are less than 100 nm in diameter, and are favourable for
gas adsorption, but unfavourable for gas flow.
Methane adsorption isothermal measurements reveal that their maximum
adsorption capacity (dry ash-free) vary from 21.36 to 26.38 m3 /t. The in-
place gas content is generally 4.93 - 14.96 m3 /t.
Coal samples data suggests that the dominant CBM source is through
thermogenic generation.

Costs
The major variables in determining the cost of drilling and completing a
vertical well are the
• drilling depth,
• the method of completion,
• the number of coal seams completed,
• the size and type of any hydraulic fracturing process used
• and the cost of building the well site infrastructure.

Do a cost calculation for methane transportation through CNG / LNG, identify the Capex, Opex and pay back time.

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Vertical wells drilled by CNX in Pennsylvania to an average depth of 305

m and hydraulically fracturing multiple seams, have drilling and completion
costs of about $200,000.
CNX vertical wells, drilled in Virginia to an average depth of 610-760 m
and fracturing a single seam, have drilling & completion costs of about
$300,000.
In the Black Warrior Basin in Alabama, methane is drained from coals 150-
1,000 m. Multiple seams are typically fractured and well costs range from
$240,000 to $350,000.
In Western Canada, multiple seams of dry coal, found 200-700 m deep, are
fractured with nitrogen only for costs between $75,000 and $200,000.
In the Raton Basin, well depths average 610-760 m and multiple coal
seams are fractured for about $450,000.
Sources: Schlumberger, 2006. Oil & Gas Investor Magazine, 2008a

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