Surface Modification of Bituminous Coal and Its Effects on Methane Adsorption

This paper studied the role of O‐containing groups over the coal surface in methane adsorption. The coal was modified with H₂SO₄, (NH₄)₂S₂O₈ or H₂SO₄/(NH₄)₂S₂O₈), respectively, to introduce O‐containing functional groups, and characterized by proximate analysis, ultimate analysis, Boehm titration, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and nitrogen adsorption. The results of ultimate analysis, Boehm titration and XPS indicate that there were increases in terms of both the content of oxygen and the quantities of O‐containing groups over the modified coals surface, especially for the carboxyl. Nitrogen adsorption shows that the modified coals possessed higher surface area and pore volume than that of 0‐XQ. The methane adsorption data were measured at 298 K at pressures up to 4.0 MPa by the volumetric method and fitted well by Langmuir model. Experimental results implied that O‐containing groups and pore structure affected methane adsorption. The adsorption capacities decreased as increasing quantities of O‐containing groups.