Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2018
College/Unit
Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
Department/Program/Center
Geology and Geography
Abstract
Kerogen is the insoluble component of organic-rich shales that controls the type and amount of
hydrocarbons generated in conventional and unconventional reservoirs. Significant progress has
recently been made in developing structural models of kerogen. However, there is still a large gap in understanding the evolution of the molecular components of kerogen with thermal maturation and their hydrocarbon (HC) generative potential. Here, we determine the variations in different molecular fragments of kerogen from a Marcellus Shale maturity series (with VRo ranging from 0.8 to 3) using quantitative 13C MultiCP/MAS NMR and MultiCP NMR/DD (dipolar dephasing). These molecular variations provide insight into the (1) evolution of the molecular structure of kerogen with increasing thermal maturity and, (2) the primary molecular contributors to HC generation. Our results also indicate that old model equations based on structural parameters of kerogen underestimate the thermal maturity and overestimate the HC generation potential of Marcellus Shale samples. This could primarily be due to the fact that the kerogen samples used to reconstruct old models were mostly derived from immature shales (VRo
Digital Commons Citation
Agrawal, Vikas and Sharma, Shikha, "Improved Kerogen Models for Determining Thermal Maturity and Hydrocarbon Potential of Shale" (2018). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 1278.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/1278
Source Citation
Agrawal, V., & Sharma, S. (2018). Improved Kerogen Models for Determining Thermal Maturity and Hydrocarbon Potential of Shale. Scientific Reports, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35560-8
Comments
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
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