TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental and numerical study of gas diffusion and sorption kinetics in ultratight rocks
AU - Zhang, Miao
AU - Chakraborty, Nirjhor
AU - Karpyn, Zuleima T.
AU - Emami-Meybodi, Hamid
AU - Ayala, Luis F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/2/15
Y1 - 2021/2/15
N2 - Mass transport in ultratight rocks is markedly different from that in typical permeable rocks due to the presence of nano-scale pores and a dual-storage mechanism in terms of free and adsorbed gas. This work provides a quantitative analysis of gas transport behavior in ultratight rocks by utilizing X-ray computed micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) imaging and numerical modeling. We conducted X-ray micro-CT core-scale experiments using high-attenuation xenon (Xe) and Marcellus shale sample to obtain temporal and spatial Xe density maps from a series of micro-CT images. We present a dual-mechanism numerical model to analyze the sorption and diffusion phenomena observed in the experiment. The numerical model considers both bulk and surface diffusion by coupling of a diffusion-based equation for free-gas transport with a surface-diffusion equation for the sorbed phase. A sorption kinetic model quantifies mass transfer between the free- and sorbed-phase. The governing equations are solved simultaneously using finite element methods. Comparisons of numerical and experimental results reveal that sorption is a non-equilibrium process in ultratight rocks and surface diffusion significantly contributes to total mass transport through nanopores. Further, results show that sorbed-phase transport a nonlinear phenomenon given the dependence of surface diffusion coefficient on concentration. Resulting transport-related parameters, such as bulk and surface diffusion coefficients and sorption rate constants, which are estimated from history matching, are consistent with literature data.
AB - Mass transport in ultratight rocks is markedly different from that in typical permeable rocks due to the presence of nano-scale pores and a dual-storage mechanism in terms of free and adsorbed gas. This work provides a quantitative analysis of gas transport behavior in ultratight rocks by utilizing X-ray computed micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) imaging and numerical modeling. We conducted X-ray micro-CT core-scale experiments using high-attenuation xenon (Xe) and Marcellus shale sample to obtain temporal and spatial Xe density maps from a series of micro-CT images. We present a dual-mechanism numerical model to analyze the sorption and diffusion phenomena observed in the experiment. The numerical model considers both bulk and surface diffusion by coupling of a diffusion-based equation for free-gas transport with a surface-diffusion equation for the sorbed phase. A sorption kinetic model quantifies mass transfer between the free- and sorbed-phase. The governing equations are solved simultaneously using finite element methods. Comparisons of numerical and experimental results reveal that sorption is a non-equilibrium process in ultratight rocks and surface diffusion significantly contributes to total mass transport through nanopores. Further, results show that sorbed-phase transport a nonlinear phenomenon given the dependence of surface diffusion coefficient on concentration. Resulting transport-related parameters, such as bulk and surface diffusion coefficients and sorption rate constants, which are estimated from history matching, are consistent with literature data.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.119300
DO - 10.1016/j.fuel.2020.119300
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85093666233
SN - 0016-2361
VL - 286
JO - Fuel
JF - Fuel
M1 - 119300
ER -