Occurrence Regularity of Methane Gas Molecules in Composite Nanopores: A Molecular Simulation Study

Abstract

Abstract To understand the occurrence regularity of methane gas molecules in composite nanopores, the effects of temperature, pressure, size of nanopore, and burial depth on the occurrence state of methane were studied theoretically by using the grand canonical Monte Carlo and molecular dynamic simulation methods. By comparing the results available in the literature, the reasons for the difference in the occurrence states of methane molecules in nanopores were analyzed, and a reasonable occurrence regularity of methane was proposed, which provides corresponding suggestions for the actual exploitation of shale gas. The results indicated that the methane gas molecules existed in nanopore only in the adsorption and transition states under different environmental conditions. They were preferentially adsorbed at the strong adsorption sites on the nanopore surface to form a stable adsorption layer. After the adsorption layer reached saturation, a transition layer with higher density than that of bulk methane was formed at the nanopore center. The total adsorption capacity of methane decreased gradually with an increase in the internal temperature of shale reservoirs and increased with an increase in nanopore size. In addition, the average amount of methane stored in the nanopore increased at a deeper burial depth. The occurrence state of methane under different pressure ranges was controlled under different action mechanisms. Under low pressure (P<20 MPa), the adsorption of methane molecules was controlled by the number of strong adsorption sites on the nanopore surface, where the density peak intensity of the adsorption layer increased with the pressure. However, under high pressure (P>20 MPa), the adsorption was controlled by the diffusion process of methane molecules in the organic matter layer, where both the adsorption and transition layers reached the saturation state, and excessive methane molecules diffused deeper into the kerogen layer. The approach to effectively improve the recovery efficiency was to inject water or carbon dioxide into the shale reservoir where the water or carbon dioxide molecules occupy strong adsorption positions than the methane molecules adsorbed originally under the competitive adsorption effect, and the adsorbed methane molecules were transformed to a free state.