Experimental investigation into the relative permeability of gas and water in low-rank coal

Understanding the relative permeability characteristics of coal in a gas-water system is crucial for coalbed methane development. Due to a lack of experimental information on the gas-water relative permeability of coal, the relative permeability of the low-rank coals in the Erlian Basin in the north of China was investigated under different conditions using the unsteady-state method. The studied coals are dominated by huminite with high moisture content, volatile yield, and low ash yield. The pore sizes of the coals feature a bimodal pattern distribution with a higher left peak of approximately 10–100 nm and a relatively lower right peak of approximately 10000 nm. The measurement of mercury intrusion-extrusion hysteresis also suggests that ink bottle-shaped pores are possibly developed within the coals. The results from relative permeability tests with methane (CH) and water depend on the pore structure, coal wettability, confining pressure, and pressure difference in the coal. The results show that a definite correlation does not exist between relative permeability and porosity in the low-rank coal. However, macropore porosity rather than the whole range of the porosity is the most likely property affecting the water relative permeability, whereas the effect of pore size on gas relative permeability varies along with a broader range. It has been observed that the low-rank coal with higher water wettability exhibits lower water relative permeability, narrower two-phase span, higher gas relative permeability, and irreducible water saturation. With the increase in the confining pressure, both the methane and water relative permeabilities decrease, while the ratio of relative permeability (k/k) increases. This suggests that the confining pressure has less influence on water relative permeability than that on gas. As the pressure difference increases under the same effective stress, the residual water saturation in the low-rank coals decreases, and the associated two-phase span increases. Water relative permeability obviously increases above the crossover point water saturation, whereas gas relative permeability increases below the crossover point water saturation