Organic pore heterogeneity and its formation mechanisms: Insights from the Lower Cretaceous lacustrine Shahezi shale in the Songliao Basin, NE China

Pores associated with organic matter are well known to play a significant role in shale gas capacities. However, an extremely high heterogeneity of organic pores often impacts our evaluation of reservoir quality. In this work, we analyze the formation mechanisms of the heterogeneity based on positioning observation method using a combination of field emission scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy. These analyses were conducted on six lacustrine shale samples at the gas window in the Lower Cretaceous Shahezi shale, which is located in the Changling Fault Depression of Songliao Basin. The results reveal that organic pore heterogeneity is mainly attributed to four controlling factors. (a) One is different hydrocarbon generation potentials among different macerals. The degree of pore development from high to low is solid bitumen, vitrinite, and inertinite. The content of carbon by the weight percentage of solid bitumen, vitrinite, and inertinite is in the opposite order, which reflects that the different hydrocarbon generation potential of each maceral is the dominant factor. (b) Another one is the remnants of primary pores in organic matter with plant cell structures. Well preserved telinite, fusinite, and semi-fusinite show cell structures, and the cells that are not completely compressed or not fully filled retain the original residual pores. (c) The third one is evolutional differences of individual solid bitumen. Not all solid bitumen developed organic pores, which is mainly attributed to the difference of solid bitumen reflectance in different solid bitumen particles. The solid bitumen reflectance of porous solid bitumen is mostly distributed between 1.6% and 2.0%, in which oil cracking to gas is dominant and porous residual solid bitumen subsequently forms. The solid bitumen reflectance of non-porous solid bitumen peaks in 1.2–1.6%, which is in the stage of kerogen transformation and oil generation with rare pore development. (d) The last one is the catalysis of clay minerals. All organoclay complexes develop abundant sponge-like pores due to catalysis during the transformation from smectite to illite. A high content of illite in the mixed layers I/S increases the specific catalytic activities, promoting the organic matter and solid bitumen to further generate hydrocarbon and form pores. Most organic–inorganic mixtures develop pores also because of catalysis from inorganic minerals.

Application of Titanium Dioxide in the Synthesis of Mesoporous Activated Carbon Derived from Agricultural Waste

Adsorption is an important technique that significances the characteristics of porous solid materials and fine powders. The importance of porous solid materials and fine powders has been recognized when porous coal used for various applications such as catalysis, separation, isolation, sensors, chromatography, etc. Herein, the synthesis of mesoporous activated carbon derived from agricultural waste using TiO2. The TiO2-modified carbon was characterized employing scanning electron microscope (SEM), attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analyzer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The obtained results suggested that the TiO2-modified carbon could be a potential material for various application like dye removal, metal removal and allied areas. This book chapter describes the commonly used classifications of porous bulk materials and also reported here the characterization of porous solid materials and fine powders with special reference to the evaluation of the surface area, pore size distribution and thermodynamic parameters of the different mesoporous material, at various scales of resolution using relevant techniques. These materials comprise several levels of structures that of the mesopores, micropores as well as macropores. The apparent topography analysis of these materials, of various pore diameters, synthesized in our laboratory has been determined at various scales with the help of various characterization techniques.

Method and device for the control of surface properties of porous solids at the boundary of their contact with liquids and gases

The article indicates the relevance of the problem of controlling the surface properties of solids, analyzes the features of interaction between porous solids in direct contact with liquids. The process of adhesive interaction of the system “liquid – porous solid” at the interface of these phases is analyzed and the dependence of the degree of wetting by a liquid of the surface of a solid on the structure of the porous body and the surface properties of the liquid is established. The dependence of the contact angle hysteresis of the solid with liquid on the porosity and roughness of the sample of the controlled body is substantiated. A method of complex express control of the wetting process, which consists in determining the hysteresis of fluid flowing in and out from the surface of a solid body, has been proposed. The method consists in determining the rate of liquid outflow from a tilted sample of a solid. At the same time, the liquid is applied with the same speed to the surface of a porous body sample. The design of device for realization of the method has been developed.