Controlling the in-situ conversion process of oil shale via geochemical methods: A case study on the Fuyu oil shale, China

Abstract

In order to solve the practical problem that the reaction degree of organic matter cannot be determined in the oil shale in-situ conversion engineering, the evolution law of oil shale pyrolysis products and geochemical parameters that can effectively reflect the transformation of organic matter were studied by indoor simulation experiment in this study. The composition of shale gas produced by pyrolysis shows obvious regular changes and can reflect the various stages of kerogen maturity changes in oil shale. Ro and Tmax in the rock pyrolysis experiment increase with the increase of pyrolysis temperature, which can effectively reflect the maturity of kerogen from immature to mature. Through the study of biomarkers in shale oil products at different pyrolysis temperatures, it is found that the change of biomarkers is regular with the increase of pyrolysis temperature, which can clearly reflect the transformation of organic matter in oil shale from room temperature to 450 °C. This study believes that in the Fuyu oil shale in-situ conversion project in China, the shale oil and gas generated underground is collected from production wells, and then the various maturity parameters of this study are used to estimate the organic matter pyrolysis process of underground oil shale.