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On the Adsorption Properties of Shale Rocks
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, Fifth EAGE Shale Workshop, May 2016, Volume 2016, p.1 - 5
Abstract
The inherent complexity of shale rocks together with their relatively low adsorption capacity as compared to commercial adsorbents represent a new scientific and technical challenge in the study of adsorption at supercritical conditions. Some of these issues are discussed in this paper. The adsorption of CO2 on a sample of Eagle Ford shale has been measured at 50°C and up to 20 MPa, and a maximum adsorption capacity of 300 SCF/ton of dry (granulated) shale sample was obtained. The analysis has focused on the estimation of the density of adsorbed gas in the pores of the material, a parameter that is key to quantify the storage capacity of shale rocks. A wide range of values was obtained (0.3–0.8 g/cm3) depending on the assumed skeletal volume of the shale. Whether these variations in the adsorbed density are related to the distinct pore structure of the materials considered and/or to uncertainties associated to the experimental techniques requires more research work under different conditions. In this context, the design an experimental protocol to accurately quantify the inaccessible volume of shale would allow improving the reliability of storage capacity estimates in these rocks.