Error analysis and improvement of water displacement method in measuring gas desorption volume from coal particles

The water displacement method is widely employed in experiments to investigate the adsorption and desorption characteristics of coal gas. However, conventional desorption apparatus faces challenges in accurately quantifying gases with low desorption rates, leading to significant inaccuracies in experimental assessments of residual gas content and adsorption–desorption hysteresis. In order to solve the issue, a new desorption device was invented to carry out isothermal ultimate desorption experiments together with the conventional device under two different equilibrium pressures with coal samples of four particle sizes. The results reveal that after 100 min, the gas desorption rate gradually decreases, with the desorption percentage of the conventional device remaining relatively constant, while that of the new device continues to rise. By the end of the experiment, the conventional device measured gas residual percentages ranging from 30 % to 50 %, whereas the new device recorded percentages between 10 % and 25 %. The lower residual percentages obtained by the new device prove the effectiveness to solve the issue that the conventional devices struggle to quantify low-rate desorption gas.

When applying the conventional device, as desorption progresses, the desorption rate decreases, and the pressure within the coal sample tank increases more slowly, which results in the difficulty for the gas to reach a pressure of 71.18 Pa to overcome fluidic constraints and enter into the graduated cylinder and ultimately accumulates in the soft, large-volume silicone pipeline. In contrast, the new device, designed with its gas outlet strategically positioned above the liquid level, bypasses the constraints of liquid forces. Additionally, the modest inner diameter of the rigid tube undergoes minimal deformation under experimental conditions. Differences in liquid forces and piping allow the new device to accumulate 71 mL less gas than the conventional device. The utilization of the new device in coal gas desorption experiments effectively mitigates experimental errors stemming from low desorption rates, thereby driving advancements in the investigation of coal seam gas parameters and residual gas content.