Study of coal gas wettability for CO2 storage and CH4 recovery

To quantify and rank gas wettability of coal as a key parameter affecting the extent of CO₂ sequestration in coal and CH₄ recovery from coal, we developed a contact angle measuring system based on a captive gas bubble technique. We used this system to study the gas wetting properties of an Australian coal from the Sydney Basin. Gas bubbles were generated and captivated beneath a coal sample within a distilled water‐filled (pH 5.7) pressurised cell. Because of the use of distilled water, and the continuous dissolution and shrinkage of the gas bubble in water during measurement, the contact angles measured correspond to a ‘transient receding’ contact angle. To take into account the mixed‐gas nature (CO₂, CH₄, and to a lesser extent N₂) of coal seam gas in the basin, we evaluated the relative wettability of coal by CH₄, CO₂ and N₂ gases in the presence of water. Measurements were taken at various pressures of up to 15 MPa for CH₄ and N₂, and up to 6 MPa for CO₂ at a constant temperature of 22°C. Overall, our results show that CO₂ wets coal more extensively than CH₄, which in turn wets coal slightly more than N₂. Moreover, the contact angle reduces as the pressure increases, and becomes < 90° at various pressures depending on the gas type. In other words, all three gases wet coal better than water under sufficiently high pressure.     

Unconventional Gas Development: Why a Regional Community Said No

Public concern resulting from unconventional coal seam gas (CSG) exploration and production has become a contentious planning issue in regional Australia, with public concern drawing attention to government planning obligations. To assist Lismore City Council (Northern New South Wales) in its deliberations on the topic, a referendum‐style poll on the issue of CSG industry development was held in conjunction with the local government elections of September 2012. The poll question, ‘Do you support CSG exploration and production in the Lismore City Council area?’, elicited a poll response rate of 97% of eligible voters, of which 87% voted ‘no’. This paper reports the results of an exit poll survey using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to frame motivations behind the poll result, and examines the role of the poll and exit poll survey in providing a process of deliberative democracy in the context of the CSG debate. Key details highlighted by the results were that non‐supporters of CSG exploration were primarily concerned about water quality, while supporters saw the primary benefit being regional employment. Emerging themes of this study are the need for more independent research on potential risks and benefits of CSG developments, increase in institutional transparency, and the development of renewable alternatives. The study concludes that the principles of deliberative democracy involved in the Lismore City Council poll and subsequent exit poll survey have provided an opportunity for a more open discussion and genuine discourse within the CSG debate.     

Ethnic demography of western siberia At the end of the 20th century

This article presents data and analysis, summarizing the materials of the general censuses, mainly of 1989 and 2002. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of demographic composition and linguistic processes among the indigenous peoples of Western Siberia. The size and the distribution of 38 ethnic groups belonging to the multinational environment of the former USSR (with a size of not less than one thousand people) are presented for every region of Western Siberia (from the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District to the Altai Republic). Different patterns of distribution, clusters of territories with similar ethnic composition, shares of indigenous, migrant non-Russian, and ethnic Russian population in each region are reported. At the end of the 20th century, the most remote territories of the Far North (Yamal) and the mountainous region of the Altai show the greatest specifi city.     

Changes in sub‐water table fluid flow at the end of the Proterozoic and its implications for gas pulsars and MVT lead–zinc deposits

A fundamental change in the nature of sub‐water table fluid flow occurred at roughly the Proterozoic–Phanerozoic boundary when organic matter began to be buried in sufficient quantities that nonaqueous fluids could occupy a significant fraction of the pore space. This allowed the formation of remarkably durable capillary seals that could trap gas in large portions (hundreds of kilometers) of a basin for hundreds of millions of years. Gas loss from these gas zones can be highly dynamic, especially during gas generation. Under the right circumstances, hundreds of cubic kilometers of gas can be rapidly discharged into adjacent permeable aquifers. In Pennsylvanian/Permian time, the Arkoma Basin may have repeatedly discharged such volumes of gas into the very permeable Cambrian sandstone and karstic carbonate aquifers of the mid‐continent of the United States. This could have displaced brines rapidly enough to form the Mississippi Valley‐type (MVT) lead–zinc deposits of this age that are associated with the Arkoma Basin, heating them only briefly as required by maturity indicators. Sea level rise accompanying the melting of Permian continental glaciers may have triggered the gas expulsion events. This radically new mechanism for the formation of MVT deposits is just one example of the nonlinear dynamics of gas accumulations that are possible since Late Proterozoic time.     

The Darwinian Rhetoric of Science in Petr Kropotkin's Mutual Aid. A Factor of Evolution (1902)

The paper explores the significance of rhetorical argumentation in Petr Kropotkin's treatise Mutual Aid. A Factor of Evolution (1902). It argues that Kropotkin's work is steeped in the tradition of a rhetoric of science that is profoundly Darwinian and in which various forms of analogic reasoning play a central role. After explaining the epistemic function of the metaphors “struggle for existence” and “mutual aid,” the paper analyses Kropotkin's argumentation strategies and offers an interpretation of them as a further development and reworking of Darwinian rhetoric.     

The age of the manager is over? Shale gas fracking and the challenge to the post-political regime for English planning

Planning systems developed through the period of ‘normative’, ‘third way’ neoliberalism were critiqued as being ‘post-political’. Planning systems were developed that bypassed political conflicts through technocratic and consensus-seeking approaches following a so-called ‘end of history’ in which left/right ideological conflicts were deemed settled. Following the North Atlantic financial crisis of 2007/8 though, scholars have begun to question whether this is a suitable critique of planning, and state institutions more generally, as political and economic conditions shift. This paper examines a case of an exemplar post-political planning system: England. The paper identifies three key logics of a ‘post-political regime’ for planning: techno-managerialism, consensus and participation. Through an analysis of texts and interviews of contested planning decisions made over shale gas fracking sites, this paper shows a ‘post-political regime’ for planning facing a crisis of legitimacy as it is challenged by an anti-fracking movement and reactionary interventions from central government. The paper provides an institutional level analysis of the crisis of post-political planning, which has lost legitimacy amidst the slow collapse of normative neoliberalism.     

Klinkenberg gas slippage measurements as a means for shale pore structure characterization

Established techniques that have been successfully used to characterize pore systems in conventional reservoir rocks lack the resolution and scalability required to adequately characterize the nano‐ to micrometer scale pore systems found in shale and cannot be applied on stressed samples. We have therefore investigated the utility of Klinkenberg gas slippage measurements for shale pore structure characterization. In contrast to other approaches, slippage measurements characterize the effective porosity of core samples and can be applied at stress conditions experienced in the reservoir during production. Slippage measurements on horizontally and vertically oriented samples from the Eagle Ford Shale Formation, Texas, USA, at a range of stress states revealed two orders of magnitude in slippage variation over five orders of magnitude permeability range. Slippage measurements are negatively correlated with permeability and follow similar trends to those found in other studies on higher permeability rocks. The samples had varying degrees of slippage anisotropy, which allowed interpretation of the relative contribution of tortuosity and pore size to permeability anisotropy. Slippage and therefore average effective pore size was found to vary up to one order of magnitude at a given permeability, warranting investigation of the significance this might have on flow properties and ultimately hydrocarbon production from shale.     

From charting to mapping: Russian military mapping of Corfu in the early nineteenth century

Abstract

This paper concludes the overview of the Russian Navy's chart making published in Imago Mundi, Volume 52 (2000). In the present paper attention is drawn to the way the emphasis shifted in the early years of the nineteenth century from charting by naval surveyors to land mapping by the Army. The need for specialized military topographical education had led to the founding of the Map Depot in 1797 in St Petersburg. The first major survey undertaken by the Depot was of the island of Corfu (1804–1806), in anticipation of further Russo‐Turkish hostilities (the Third Russo‐Turkish war, 1806–1812).     

The Regional Context of Islam in Russia: Diversities along the Volga

A noted investigator of Russia's ethnic and geopolitical affairs presents case studies of six regions (in aggregate home to ca. 5.8 million Muslims, or over one-third of Russia's total) within the Volga and North Caucasus districts in an effort to demonstrate the importance of the regional context in which Russia's Muslims reside. Drawing upon field interviews (through March 2006) and information from local media, the author shows how the milieu in which Islam is practiced diverges markedly across regional boundaries. The diversities are traced to location, history, ethnocultural affiliation, number of adherents, educational resources, and relations between Islamic leaders and government officials. Also analyzed is the role of the two major competing spiritual centers of Islam in Russia, and the sense of regional self-identity. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H70, Z10, Z12. 1figure, 28 references.