Influence of Particle Size on the Low-Temperature Nitrogen Adsorption of Deep Shale in Southern Sichuan, China

Abstract

Pore characteristics are one of the most important elements in the study of shale reservoir properties and are a key parameter for the evaluation of the potential of shale oil and gas resources. Low-temperature nitrogen adsorption is a common laboratory method that is used to characterize the pore structure of shale. However, the effect of shale’s particle size on the experimental results of the nitrogen adsorption of deep shale samples is still unclear. In this paper, using deep shale samples of different mesh sizes from the Luzhou Block as an example, we studied the effect of particle size on the pore structure of deep shale, as characterized by nitrogen adsorption experiments. The results showed that the pore volume of deep shale is mainly distributed in the mesoporous range, with a pore size ranging from 2 to 20 nm. The pore volume, as measured by nitrogen adsorption, increases slowly as the particle size decreases and then it increases rapidly. The particle size of shale has no obvious effect on the measurement of the specific surface area. The fractal dimension of deep shale gradually increases as the particle size of the shale samples increases and the smaller the particle size, the higher the correlation coefficient, R2, of the fractal dimension fitting. In this paper, different recommended sizes are given for selecting suitable particle sizes in nitrogen adsorption experiments on deep shale with different structural parameters, which will increase the accuracy of the study of the pore structure of deep shale.