ABSTRACT

To improve our understanding of transport phenomena during the in situ and ex situ pyrolysis processing of oil shale, pore scale analysis of oil shale samples undergoing pyrolysis at different temperatures is critical. In this study, the pore space of Green River oil shale samples before and after pyrolysis was characterized and digitized using the following multiscale, noninvasive, nondestructive, three-dimensional imaging techniques: x-ray microtomography (XMT), x-ray nanotomography (XNT), and high-resolution x-ray microtomography (HRXMT). Once the digital representation of the

CONTENTS

8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 188 8.2 Materials and Methods ............................................................................. 189

8.2.1 Sample Selection ............................................................................ 189 8.2.2 Pyrolysis of Oil Shale Core Samples ........................................... 189 8.2.3 Multiscale X-Ray Microtomography/Nanotomography .......... 190 8.2.4 Lattice Boltzmann Method for Pore Scale Modeling of

Single Phase Fluid Flow ................................................................ 191 8.3 Characterization of S2 Oil Shale Core Samples ..................................... 192

8.3.1 Multiscale X-Ray Microtomography/Nanotomography before Pyrolysis .............................................................................. 193

8.3.2 Multiscale X-Ray Microtomography/Nanotomography after Pyrolysis ................................................................................. 194

8.3.3 Pore Scale Modeling of Post-Pyrolysis S2 Oil Shale Core Sample ............................................................................................. 194

8.4 Characterization of Skyline 16 Oil Shale Core Samples ....................... 196 8.4.1 Multiscale X-Ray Microtomography/Nanotomography

before and after Pyrolysis ............................................................. 198 8.4.2 Porosity Changes during Pyrolysis ............................................. 199 8.4.3 Pore Scale Modeling of Green River Core Samples .................. 204

8.5 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 205 References ............................................................................................................. 207

pore space was established, the Lattice Boltzmann method was used to estimate ow properties such as absolute permeabilities for the different pore network structures.