Publications

There are some challenging ideas that being pursued by a student research group in UGM. First, to accelerate methane production in CBM field, second, so it could gain more economical value with faster Break Event Point and third, to extend the life of a brown CBM field. Some pilot laboratory researches was conducted to make this big picture happen. This project was called “Biologically Enhanced Coal Bed Methane”. In this paper the newest result from the research project will be revealed, it was simulating the natural condition of CBM formation water in lab, in order to prove the method could run in nature. Coal bed methane (CBM) is a type of natural gas with 100% methane content produced by coal reservoir. It is also known as an unconventional energy. This experimental research focus as the pilot project to develop the second method by using methanogen bacteria from cow rumen which have lower price and easier to gather than other sources. Coal, rumen, and water are reacted in the sealed tube that simulate natural condition of formation water. The coal used in this experiment originally came from North Kutai Sub Basin, Indonesia. High volatile bituminous samples, BE and E2, were used in this experiment because it was proven as the best in generating methane than other coal samples in reaction between coal and cow rumen. The natural condition of CBM were simulated by using oven to maintain and applying 3 salinity condition, fresh, brackish, and saline. Methane from the tube was then calculated using the gas chromatograph in the every three days. After the laboratory procedure, production of methane was analyzed by using linier regression of each data chart to find the best/mostoptimum formation condition in terms of salinity and temperature for rumen BECBM method to be applied, which resulted methanogen bacteria fits the brackish water the most, while temperature does not really affect the rate of methane formation.