Characteristics of gas disaster in the Huaibei coalfield and its control and development technologies

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) 2014-03, Vol.71 (1), p.85-107
• Main Authors: Wang, Liang, Cheng, Yuan-ping, An, Feng-hua, Zhou, Hong-xing, Kong, Sheng-li, Wang, Wei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidents; Air pollution; China (People's Republic); Civil Engineering; Coal; Coal gasification; Coal industry; Coal mines; Coal mining; Disasters; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Emissions control; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental Management; Evolution; Exact sciences and technology; Geological structures; Geology; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Greenhouse gases; Hazards; Hydrogeology; Mining accidents & safety; Natural gas supply; Natural Hazards; Natural hazards: prediction, damages, etc; Occupational safety; Original Paper; Outbursts; Reservoirs; Seams; Statistics; Storage; Technology; Tectonics; Theoretical analysis
• ISSN: 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-013-0901-x

The Huaibei coalfield is in the East China Economic Area, which is rich in coal and gas resources. However, hundreds of coal and gas outburst accidents have occurred because of the complex geological structures of the coalfield. Based on theoretical analysis and field statistics, the characteristics of regional geological structures and the coal measure strata evolution in the Huaibei coalfield were researched, and gas resource distribution and gas parameters were statistically analyzed to determine the dominant controlling factors of gas occurrence and gas dynamic disaster. The results indicated that the Huaibei coalfield has undergone complex tectonic evolution, causing obvious differences in gas storage in different blocks of different mining areas, which exhibits a pattern of high amounts of gas in the south and east, and low amounts of gas in the north and west. The coal seam and gas occurrence have a bipolar distribution in the coalfield caused by multiple tectonic movements, and they are deeply buried. Horizontal tectonic stress plays a dominant role in gas outburst, and the thermal evolution and trap effects of magma intrusion increase the possibility and extent of gas outburst. Considering coal seam and gas occurrence characteristics in the coalfield, we propose a new technology for deep coal reservoir reconstruction which combined present underground regional gas control methods and surface well extraction methods. The technology has three effects: developing gas resources, improving coal mining safety level and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which has been practiced to be effective in coal mines in the Huaibei coalfield.