Advanced Characterization of Organic-rich Shales using Vapour Adsorption

Project Information

ACOSVA

Grant agreement ID: 793128

DOI

10.3030/793128

Project terminated on 2 February 2020

EC signature date 21 February 2018

Start date 1 August 2018

End date 31 July 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 195 454,80

EU contribution

€ 195 454,80

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ACOSVA (Advanced Characterization of Organic-rich Shales using Vapour Adsorption)

Reporting period: 2018-08-01 to 2020-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project is to advance the understanding of material properties of shales and the gases adsorption behaviour on shales. Material properties of shale, such as pore structure and surface property, are still under investigation because of the complex nature of shale. Shale contains a large amount of clay minerals, a small portion of organic matter, and other minerals like quartz and pyrite. Taking into account chemical/wetting differences of organic matter and minerals, pores in shale can be classified into hydrophobic organic pores and hydrophilic mineral pores. Unfortunately, surface chemistry differences at the nanoscale level within these pores are rarely considered due to the limitation of the instruments, and this has resulted in a knowledge gap in understanding surface chemistry/wetting properties in shales. The poor understanding of the shale material properties makes it impossible to develop a realistic fluid transport model for shale that considers surface chemistry properties. This severely impedes the development of next generation, safe and environmental friendly shale gas recovery technology.

The outputs of this project discloses the material properties of shales at different dimensions and scales, which lays the foundation for improving current fluid transport models in shales by considering surface chemistry properties and developing the next generation of environmentally-friendly shale gas recovery technology through non-aqueous fluid injection and heat stimulation in order to serve shale gas development in the EU, U.S. and China.

The overall aim of this project is to bring together a talented early career researcher with a background in unconventional gas engineering and gas adsorption science from the U.S. with a research group with expertise in material science and geoenergy from the UK. The main objectives of this project is to conduct an integrated material characterization of organic rich rocks (shales and coals), advance the understanding of gases adsorption behaviour on shales using modelling approach, and understanding the interactions between methane (adsorbed phase and gaseous phase) and water interaction within pore spaces.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

This project first conducted an integrated experimental study on material properties of organic rich rocks (shales and coals), including pore structure, chemical properties, and mechanical properties. These properties are characterized at one, two and three dimensions by using advance analytical techniques such as gas adsorption method, TGA-DSC, XRD, XPS, FTIR and Raman, optical profiler, electron microscope, atomic force microscopy and peak force infrared microscopy. Then, different gases (methane, ethane, propane, n-butane, iso-butane, n-heptane, n-hexane and carbon dioxide) adsorption behaviour on shales and coals were modelled and analysed to understand the mechanism of gases adsorption and the associated thermodynamics potentials. The interactions between methane and water interaction within pore spaces of coal were also investigated to understand the displacement mechanism. The completed works largely reach the original goals of the project, which leads to three high quality peer reviewed papers in leading international journals. It is worth noting that, due to the early termination of the project, the proposed in situ NMR tests in the original plan were not conducted.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

A comprehensive material characterization of organic rich rocks (shales and coals) were completed by using advance analytical techniques such as gas adsorption method, TGA-DSC, XRD, XPS, FTIR and Raman, optical profiler, electron microscope and atomic force microscopy. Due to the technical difficulties of TEM in analysing bulk rock samples, a novel peak force infrared microscopy is used to analysis the chemical properties of shales.
Different gases (methane, ethane, propane, n-butane, iso-butane, n-heptane, n-hexane and carbon dioxide) adsorption behaviour on shales and coals were modelled and analyzed to understand the mechanism of gases adsorption and the associated thermodynamics potentials. These works lead to two peer-review papers.
The interactions between methane (adsorbed phase and gaseous phase) and water interaction within pore spaces of coal were also investigated to understand the displacement mechanism. This work leads to one peer-reviewed paper.

Shale selectivity to CO2

New insights on supercritical methane adsorption on shales

Water-methane displacement behaviour at the pore space