Activated desorption at heterogeneous interfaces and long-time kinetics of hydrocarbon recovery from nanoporous media.

ABSTRACT: Hydrocarbon recovery from unconventional reservoirs (shale gas) is debated due to its environmental impact and uncertainties on its predictability. But a lack of scientific knowledge impedes the proposal of reliable alternatives. The requirement of hydrofracking, fast recovery decay and ultra-low permeability-inherent to their nanoporosity-are specificities of these reservoirs, which challenge existing frameworks. Here we use molecular simulation and statistical models to show that recovery is hampered by interfacial effects at the wet kerogen surface. Recovery is shown to be thermally activated with an energy barrier modelled from the interface wetting properties. We build a statistical model of the recovery kinetics with a two-regime decline that is consistent with published data: a shor

SUBMITTER: Lee T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4919511 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature