Abstract:
In the Fukang block located in the eastern part of the southern Junggar Basin, coalbed methane (CBM) from CBM wells exhibits a gradually increasing H
2S concentration in the process of CBM production via water drainage, severely threatening production safety. Based on the CBM exploration and extraction data, as well as the anaerobic fermentation experiments, this study preliminarily investigated the causes of abnormal H
2S concentrations during the CBM production in the Fukang block. As indicated by the gas content test in the CBM exploration stage, the original CBM showed a low H
2S concentration of only up to 2.152×10
−6. Abnormal H
2S concentrations did not occur at the beginning of CBM production. However, some wells exhibited abnormal H
2S concentrations as CBM production proceeded. For example, the No.13 CBM well showed an abnormal increase in H
2S concentration after seven years of gas production, with the H
2S concentration reaching 700×10
−6. The grey relational analysis reveals that the H
2S concentration is closely related to the yield and quality of water in CBM wells. H
2S generation can be promoted under a sufficient supply of nutrients from groundwater for microbial metabolism. As shown by the anaerobic fermentation system constructed with the coal and water produced from the Fukang block as the anaerobic broth, the H
2S production was inversely and positively proportional to the SO
4 2− and HCO
3 − contents in the fermentation broth, respectively. In this system, CH
4 showed a lagging gas production peak and significantly lower cumulative gas production compared to H
2S. However, the anaerobic fermentation system constructed with coal from the block and distilled water as the fermentation broth primarily produced CH
4, with only a small amount of H
2S. These findings indicate that H
2S was generated from the reduction of SO
4 2− by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) using CH
4 as electron donors. The gradually decreasing content of low-molecular-weight organic acids in the fermentation broth indicates that SRB also reduced SO
4 2− using organic acids as electron donors. Therefore, the field production data and the anaerobic fermentation experimental results indicate that H
2S in the Fukang block was generated from the reduction of SO
4 2− in the coal seam water by SRB. The biogenic gas generated in the CBM production stage, which is different from primary and secondary biogenic gases, is referred to as the epigenetic biogenic gas, in which the H
2S is called epigenetic biogenic H
2S. The generation of epigenetic biogenic gas during the CBM production further corroborates the feasibility of implementing CBM bioengineering under human intervention.