PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF VIBRATION AND SURFACTANT ON MALAYSIAN COAL FOR CBM STUDY

Coalbed Methane (CBM) is unconventional gas reservoir. High volume of gas located in
bituminous coal rank. Coalbed Methane reservoir is dual porosity which is fracture and
matrix porosity, gas or other liquids situated in the matrix porosity and migrate through
the continuous fracture called face cleats or through the discontinuous fracture called
butt cleats. The extraction or production can be made in term of desorption of gas from
coal. Desorption becomes more difficult when water production presents in the coal has
not been produced therefore it hinders the methane desorption or methane stuck in the
matrix and also less permeability of coal will create an inconvenience for methane to
migrate or flow from matrix and the declination of methane production. These are the
encountered problems that coalbed methane need to be stimulated. Therefore this
project is to investigate the effect of changes in Malaysian coal sample characteristics in
accordance with the important parameters i.e., frequency, surfactant and temperature.
Coal samples from Balingian coalfield, Sarawak, Malaysia are tested to investigate the
effect of surfactant and different frequencies at specified temperatures at which yield the
positive maximum effect called optimum condition. The results indicate that the coal
characteristics are improved or increased at optimum condition. Surfactant stimulation
yields the enlargement of the pore of the coal sample at higher temperature. Vibration
stimulation proves the improvement of coal properties at optimum frequency of 50 Hz
for both temperatures of 50 °C and 70 °C. Hopefully this project can bring some new
changes in study of the coalbed methane in the future.