Sorption model of lacustrine shale oil: Insights from the contribution of organic matter and clay minerals

Jinbu Li, Min Wang, Chunqing Jiang, Shuangfang Lu and Zheng Li

Energy, 2022, vol. 260, issue C

Abstract: Shale oil is a promising alternative unconventional energy to conventional fossil fuels. Although some studies have been conducted on total oil content, little work to date was performed on sorbed versus free oil, which is essential for estimating shale oil reserves. This study proposed a sorbed oil model insights from the contribution of oil absorption in kerogen (Absk), oil adsorption on organic pores (Adsk), and oil adsorption on clay pores(Adsc). The model innovatively considers the effect of thermal maturation on kerogen sorption and the proportion of clay pores hosting adsorbed oil (f). A case study shows that the Absk ranges from 250 to 80 mg/g TOC in the vitrinite reflectance range of 0.5%–0.89%, while Adsk is 16.5–115.58 mg/g TOC because organic pores are not well developed. For clay pores, the oil adsorption capacity is 1.8 mg/m2 and f is mainly controlled by the oil saturation. At the early oil window, oil sorption associated with kerogen dominated, thus free oil instead of total oil contents should be considered when selecting favorable areas. The proposed model is useful to our understanding of the shale oil occurrence mechanism and provides a new way of estimating sorbed oil contents at different maturity.

Keywords: Shale oil; Mobility; Sorbed oil; Free oil; Adsorbed oil; Jiyang depression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:260:y:2022:i:c:s0360544222019089

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125011

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