The EERC has a wide variety of technical expertise that may be applied to the development of coalbed methane resources associated with low-rank coals. Technical issues facing the commercial production of coalbed methane include coal resource assessment, disposal of produced water, and resource extraction. The EERC has conducted projects directly focused on these issues, as well as other projects directly or indirectly relevant to the commercial production of coalbed methane.

Coal Resource Assessment and Correlation
Although conventional wisdom assumes that lignite is of too low a grade to be a commercially viable source of methane, no rigorous studies support this assumption for lignites in the northern Great Plains. On the contrary, there is anecdotal evidence from ranchers and water well drillers suggesting that coalbed methane may indeed occur in some of the lignite aquifers of North Dakota. The occurrence of coalbed methane is directly related to the thickness of a coal seam, the thickness of the overburden, and the hydrostatic pressure of water within the seam. Detailed knowledge of the nature of target coals is critical to the evaluation of its potential as a coalbed methane resource. To that end, the EERC has considerable experience with the assessment and correlation of coal resources in the Williston Basin.

Published Reports
The EERC regularly publishes reports dealing with lignites as part of individual projects. The EERC has contributed to the following:

• Geology and Utilization of Fort Union Lignites (Environmental and Coal Associates, 359 p), 1992
• U.S. Geological Survey National Coal Resources Data System
• Atlas of Gas-Related Drilling Waste, Gas Technology Institute ([GTI] formerly Gas Research Institute) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 1995
• Atlas of Gas-Related Produced Water, GTI and DOE, 1995

Produced Water Disposal
The EERC has worked extensively with produced-water issues. In particular, the EERC has been instrumental in developing, demonstrating, and commercializing the freeze-thaw/evaporation^® (FTE^®) technology for treating large volumes of oil and gas produced waters in three major gas-produced waters. Since 1995, FTE^® has been successfully used to treat produced waters in three major gas-producing areas of the Rocky Mountain region, including Amoco's coalbed methane fields in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico.

Resource Extraction
While some aspects of coalbed methane production are universal (e.g., high volumes of produced water in the early stages of well development), other characteristics (e.g., coalbed thickness and friability) that can affect the completion and development of methane wells vary greatly from region to region.

Cofunding Opportunities
Cofunding for coalbed methane-related research activities is available through the EERC's Jointly Sponsored Research Program (JSRP) with DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory.