Estimating the reaction parameters of oil shale pyrolysis and oil shale grade using temperature transient analysis and inverse modeling

Abstract

Grade of oil shale and reaction parameters of in-situ pyrolysismust be identified for the prediction of productivity before actual heating and production. Identification of oil shale grade and reaction parameters depends on laboratory experimentson core samples. However, laboratory-determined parameters can be different from those representing in-situ reservoir conditions. In this study, we use inverse modeling to determine oil shale grade and reaction parameters. The inversions are based on a forward model that simulates heat injection into a well. Temperature at the heating well is affected by a thermal skin effect as a result of a decrease of composite thermal conductivity around the heater due to the decompositioninduced porosity increase. Synthetic observations of heater temperature are generated from a forward simulation. Temperature difference and its derivative are used in synthetic inversions to estimate oil shale grade and parameters of active decomposition reactions with an error below 1%. The proposed methodology of inverse modeling is expected to successfully estimate the oil shale grade and reaction parameters without core sampling and subsequent surface experiments.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Method Selection for Shale Oil Based on Numerical Simulations

“…According to the calculations, within a pressure range of 10−30 MPa, the MMP for the target oil and gas compositions is 22.5 MPa (Figure 7), which is slightly lower than the initial reservoir pressure of 23.4 MPa. 42 The results of the calculations were confirmed through reference to published data on the transformation parameters of kerogen and bitumen. 43,44 Although these reactions adequately describe the real process of hydrocarbon transformation, future studies must focus on the separate effects of hot water on mobile oil, adsorbed light and heavy oil, viscous bitumen, and kerogen to achieve more reliable calculations.…”

“…The kinetic parameters were calculated based on the Arrhenius equation and the results of a series of laboratory experiments on open-system pyrolysis before and after extraction. The experiments and calculations were performed in accordance with the published model . The results of the calculations were confirmed through reference to published data on the transformation parameters of kerogen and bitumen. , …”

Advancements and Environmental Implications in Oil Shale Exploration and Processing

“…The study analyzed the sensitivity of the temperature distribution of the reservoir to the positions of horizontal wells and productivity by applying two different irreducible saturation of the aqueous phase in the rock matrix. The research shows that recovery and utilization of oil shale could be improved through the use of multistage transverse fractured horizontal well systems [52].…”

Cyclic Subcritical Water Injection into Bazhenov Oil Shale: Geochemical and Petrophysical Properties Evolution Due to Hydrothermal Exposure

“…In this study, a sequential reaction mechanism was utilized, where solid and immobile pseudo-components, kerogen and bitumen, crack to mobile and producible in the experiment heavy oil, light oil, hydrocarbon gas, and immobile char. This approach is widely used in the literature [36,63] and allows all real chemical species and reactions to be lumped into a few pseudo-components and pseudo-reactions. Adequate computational cost and moderate complexity make the model useful for petroleum reservoir simulations.…”

“…Many studies on numerical modeling are devoted to oil shale in situ retorting procedure development, including the following: acceleration of simulations using fast upscaled dynamic models [34], parameter space reduction and sensitivity analysis [35], reaction parameters estimation using inverse modeling [36], simulation with fully coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical properties [37], application of various operator splitting techniques [38], different kinetic models and heat delivery methods application [39][40][41].…”