The plan is to inject and store up to 20,000 tons of CO2 underlying coal seams at Consol’s CNX Gas Virginia operations this fall.

The injection will be performed during a one-year period and builds on a recently completed 1000t injection test that took place in neighboring Russell County, Virginia.

Consol and the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech yesterday announced their collaborative efforts on the research project would be conducted in Buchanan County with funding from the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

The program intends to improve understanding of the feasibility of CO2 storage in unmineable coal seams and to explore the potential for enhanced CBM recovery.

It is expected that the coal seam will adsorb the carbon dioxide and potentially release even more methane for collection and use, as occurred in the smaller scale test in Russell County.

The current test is part of a larger effort funded by NETL for carbon capture, utilization and storage projects.

For the pilot test, the three wells will be converted for CO2 injection and three new wells will be drilled to monitor reservoir pressure, gas composition and the CO2 path.

The targeted coal seams are in the Pocahontas and Lee formations and range from 900 feet to 2200ft in depth and 0.7ft to 2.5ft in thickness.

The pilot project is expected to begin in fall of 2013.

"The results of this test will be vital to assess the potential of geologic storage in Appalachian coal seams as a safe and permanent method to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while enhancing coalbed methane recovery," VCCER director Michael Karmis said.