TY - JOUR

T1 - Experimental investigation of thermal decomposition of Bazhenov formation kerogen

T2 - Mechanism and application for thermal enhanced oil recovery

AU - Bondarenko, Tatiana

AU - Cheremisin, Alexey

AU - Kozlova, Elena

AU - Zvereva, Irina

AU - Chislov, Mikhail

AU - Myshenkov, Mikhail

AU - Novakowski, Vadim

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier B.V. Copyright: Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Bazhenov formation is the key kerogen-bearing oil shale reserve in Russia. Therefore, as recovery from conventional reservoirs decreases, the need to find enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in order to develop Bazhenov formation becomes evident. Despite the huge amount of reserves, oil shales in Russia have not been developed extensively due to the absence of suitable recovery technique. High pressure air injection (HPAI) is one of the recovery techniques that has a potential to become the main recovery method. In order to design this method correctly, different aspects must be investigated. To do that, thermal analysis methods should be implemented. In this work, thermomicroscopy, simultaneous thermal analysis and open system pyrolysis were performed to investigate kerogen conversion process. The optical thermomicroscopy showed changes in the macrostructure and the morphology of the Bazhenov shale sample during heating up to 720 °C with the heating rate 10 °C/min. It was demonstrated that the conversion of kerogen into hydrocarbons caused increasing in sample porosity. Geometrical characteristics of pores such as size and shape were determined, dynamic events during the heating were investigated. During the air purge, intensive fracturing occurred along the voids formed due to oxidation of organic matter at 450 °C. The simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) revealed linear relationship between TOC and heat value for single well samples. Interval of oxidation reactions was determined. Bulk-kinetic parameters (activation energy and frequency factor) were calculated by numerical inversion of pyrolysis data using the Kinetics2015 optimization software. Fixing the A factor to a 2×1014s−1and using a spacing of 1 kcal/mole in the discrete activation energy distribution were investigated. In result, solution for different samples along the well was rather stable comparing to traditional approach.

AB - Bazhenov formation is the key kerogen-bearing oil shale reserve in Russia. Therefore, as recovery from conventional reservoirs decreases, the need to find enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in order to develop Bazhenov formation becomes evident. Despite the huge amount of reserves, oil shales in Russia have not been developed extensively due to the absence of suitable recovery technique. High pressure air injection (HPAI) is one of the recovery techniques that has a potential to become the main recovery method. In order to design this method correctly, different aspects must be investigated. To do that, thermal analysis methods should be implemented. In this work, thermomicroscopy, simultaneous thermal analysis and open system pyrolysis were performed to investigate kerogen conversion process. The optical thermomicroscopy showed changes in the macrostructure and the morphology of the Bazhenov shale sample during heating up to 720 °C with the heating rate 10 °C/min. It was demonstrated that the conversion of kerogen into hydrocarbons caused increasing in sample porosity. Geometrical characteristics of pores such as size and shape were determined, dynamic events during the heating were investigated. During the air purge, intensive fracturing occurred along the voids formed due to oxidation of organic matter at 450 °C. The simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) revealed linear relationship between TOC and heat value for single well samples. Interval of oxidation reactions was determined. Bulk-kinetic parameters (activation energy and frequency factor) were calculated by numerical inversion of pyrolysis data using the Kinetics2015 optimization software. Fixing the A factor to a 2×1014s−1and using a spacing of 1 kcal/mole in the discrete activation energy distribution were investigated. In result, solution for different samples along the well was rather stable comparing to traditional approach.

KW - Bazhenov formation

KW - High pressure air injection

KW - Kerogen

KW - Kinetics

KW - Pyrolysis

KW - Simultaneous thermal analysis

KW - Thermal enhanced oil recovery

KW - Thermomicroscopy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028248964&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.petrol.2016.12.011

DO - 10.1016/j.petrol.2016.12.011

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85028248964

VL - 150

SP - 288

EP - 296

JO - Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

JF - Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

SN - 0920-4105

ER -