The effect of small micropores on methane adsorption of coals from Northern China

In this study, the effect of coal micropores on the adsorption properties, especially the Langmuir pressure (PL), was investigated by testing 11 coal samples from Northern China. The adsorption of CO2 at 273 K was utilized to analyze the pore size distribution. The results of these coals show that micropore volume and micropore surface area are the major factors affecting the Langmuir volume (VL) but have weaker effects on PL. Micropore filling theory considers that some smaller micropores with an obvious overlapping adsorption force cause volume filling adsorption. These micropores firstly reach saturated adsorption, controlling the adsorption volume at the low-pressure stage and thus have a great effect on PL. Four times the methane molecular diameter, 1.5 nm, was assumed as the critical pore size with obvious overlapping adsorption force. The relationship between PL and the proportion of the pore volume below 1.5 nm to the micropore volume was investigated, and it was found that the higher the volume proportion of these small micropores was, the smaller the PL was, though two data points deviated from this trend. The reason for the anomalous coal samples could be the deviation from the assumed critical pore size of 1.5 nm for volume filling and the effects of the various micropore surface properties, which await further study.