Temperature-pressure coupling effect on gas desorption characteristics in coal during low-variable temperature process

Accurate determination of coalbed methane (CBM) content can not only prevent and control coal and gas outburst disasters in mines, but also facilitate the prediction of coal seam methane resource reserves, which is significant for injecting carbon dioxide to enhance CBM recovery. The freezing core sampling technique proposed in recent years for accurate determination of the CBM content has faced temperature-pressure coupling effects on gas desorption in coalin a low-variable temperature environment. In this paper, we utilized a self-developed high-low temperature alternating adsorption-desorption experimental device to study the gas desorption process in coal under temperature-pressure coupling conditions in a low-variable temperature environment. The experimental results show that the main promotion and inhibition effects of temperature on the gas adsorption and desorption in coal in a low-temperature environment were consistent with those in an ambient temperature environment, i.e., the decrease of temperature promoted coal gas adsorption, while the increase of the temperature promoted coal gas desorption. It is found that throughout the temperature change process (TCP), there existed a ‘pseudo-desorption’ phenomenon, and the cumulative desorption amount showed a consecutive rising-declining-rising trend and finally stabilized. The whole process can be regarded as consisting of a main desorption process and a retrograde desorption process. In the main desorption process with the same TCP, the cumulative desorption amount and initial desorption rate increased with the increase of initial equilibrium pressure. In the retrograde desorption process, there existed a peak retrograde desorption rate, and the staged retrograde desorption amount conformed to the linear decrease law. A comprehensive analysis of the temperature-pressure coupling effect on gas desorption throughout the TCP was conducted. Thus, we proposed some considerations and precautions for the configuration and supply monitoring of the cold source in the process of the measurement of CBM content using the freeze-coring method. • Temperature-pressure coupling effect is studied at low/ambient variable temperatures. • Gas desorption amount shows a rising-declining-rising trend. • Pseudo-desorption occurs in the temperature change process due to the coupling. • Linear-decreasing stepwise retrograde desorption process shows a peak desorption rate.