Quantitative Characterization of Organic Pore Structure from Gas Adsorption in Lower Cretaceous Lacustrine Shales in the Songliao Basin, NE China

Abstract

Abstract Organic matter (OM) pores are widely considered to be important for gas storage and transportation. In this work, we quantitatively analyze the pore structure of OM and its controlling factors through geochemical and petrologic analyses, optical microscope, OM isolation, and adsorption isotherms. These analyses were carried out on lacustrine shale samples from the Lower Cretaceous Shahezi Formation, which is located in the Changling Fault Depression in Songliao Basin. The results show that the content of soluble OM (SOM) is low, accounting for 0.26%-3.75% of total OM. The contribution of pore development from SOM itself is limited. After extraction of SOM by chloroform, pore volume (PV), specific surface area (SSA), and average pore diameter (APD) exposed to gas molecules greatly increase. The existence of SOM has an obvious effect on pores of >10 nm, especially the clay mineral-related pores that contribute the most to the total PV. The content of kerogen is higher than SOM and accounts for 9.9%-65.5% (averaging 24.0%) of total PV in bulk shale, only second to minerals. More importantly, kerogen is the dominant contributor to organic PV, accounting for 95.8%-99.7% (averaging 98.3%) of the total organic PV. The pores developed in the kerogen peak at 0.4-0.7 nm and 10-30 nm. The solid bitumen (SB) followed by vitrinite and inertinite in kerogen contributes the most to the total kerogen PV.