Underground Coal Gasification Using Oxygen and Steam

In this paper, through model experiment of the underground coal gasification, the effects of pure oxygen gasification, oxygen-steam gasification, and moving-point gasification methods on the underground gasification process and gas quality were studied. Experiments showed that H(2) and CO volume fraction in product gas during the pure oxygen gasification was 23.63-30.24% and 35.22-46.32%, respectively, with the gas heating value exceeding 11.00 MJ/m(3); under the oxygen-steam gasification, when the steam/oxygen ratio stood at 2: 1, gas compositions remained virtually stable and CO + H(2) was basically between 61.66 and 71.29%. Moving-point gasification could effectively improve the changes in the cavity in the coal seams or the effects of roof inbreak on gas quality; the ratio of gas flowing quantity to oxygen supplying quantity was between 3.1:1 and 3.5:1 and took on the linear changes; on the basis of the test data, the reasons for gas quality changes under different gasification conditions were analyzed.