Impact of Pore Connectivity on Quantification of Mineral Accessibility in Sandstone Samples

Abstract

Characterization of microscale features and mineral distributions in rock samples can be facilitated non-destructively with imaging analysis. Scanning electron microscopy combined with backscattered electron and energy-dispersive spectroscopy is particularly valuable and can be utilized to identify minerals. Mineral segmentation coupled with quantitative image processing can yield mineral volume fractions and accessibility from these images. Prior estimates of mineral accessibility from images have improved the simulations of mineral reaction rates, but it is unclear how pore connectivity should be accounted for. This is further complex in samples with clay minerals where nanopores in clays need to be considered. Here, the impacts of different approaches to assess pore connectivity on quantification of mineral accessibility are considered for seven sandstone samples with varying composition. Mineral accessibilities are calculated by counting the interfacial pixels between the associated minerals and the adjacent pores from the 2D mineral segmented maps. Three types of accessibilities are considered: the first approach accounts for all the macropore space, the second approach considers only the 2D connected macropores, and the third approach includes the 2D connected porosity considering nanopores in clays. The observed variations in accessibility for most mineral phases are within 1 order of magnitude when nanopore connectivity is considered and thus not anticipated to largely impact the simulated reactivity of samples. However, greater variations were observed for clay minerals, which may impact long-term simulations (years). Larger variations in accessibility were also noted for carbonate minerals, but only some samples contained carbonate phases, and additional data is needed to assess the trends.