Molecular Modeling of Phase Behavior and Flow in Shale Porous Media

过去几年页岩气和致密油行业的蓬勃发展激发了人们对勘探和生产活动的浓厚兴趣。加拿大的页岩气可采储量估计为573万亿立方英尺，可以提供100年的天然气供应。针对可靠的碳氢化合物相态和流动模型的研究是预测页岩地层天然气和致密油产量的关键。然而，页岩非常规油藏与常规油藏有很大的不同，常规油藏中的烃类存储在裂缝和大孔隙中，这些裂缝和大孔隙一般大于100 nm。 页岩储层的复杂性源于页岩中广泛分布的纳米孔。纳米孔可能导致很大一部分碳氢化合物的吸附，不能用传统的建模方法来描述。在纳米尺度上，流体分子在孔内的分布是不均匀的，表面吸附在相行为和流动中起主导作用。在我们的研究项目中，我们将使用分子建模和模拟来明确考虑分子间和流体-表面相互作用。在页岩油藏中提供可靠的相态和流动模型是我们研究小组的首要目标。在这项提案中概述的研究计划中，我们将朝着开发可靠的模型迈出一步，以解决在准确估计页岩中的碳氢化合物流体就地和流动方面的挑战，因为我们没有不完整的知识来建立基本和全面的模型。 该计划中的活动使用深刻的数学概念和对物理学的透彻理解来产生可靠的指导方针，可供石油行业的从业者和其他研究人员使用。该计划的教育目标是让未来的HQP了解对开发可靠的页岩气和致密油模型非常重要的基本知识，并教他们提取这些知识的基本特征，以便为现实生活中的页岩生产做出贡献。 拟议的计划所产生的预期贡献有可能极大地促进对纳米限制下碳氢化合物的相行为和流动的基本理解。这项研究的结果将导致对页岩纳米孔隙介质中的相态和流动进行更准确和可靠的建模，并为油藏模拟提供重要的见解。这将有助于现场流体的优化评价和油气回收工艺的设计。这可能有助于为运营中的公司创造高得多的净现值，并使加拿大的页岩生产在经济上更可行。

Booming in the shale gas and tight oil industry in the past few years has stimulated profound interest in exploration and production activities. The recoverable shale gas in Canada is estimated to be 573 trillion cubic feet, which can provide 100 years of natural gas supply. Studies directed towards the development of reliable phase behavior and flow modeling of hydrocarbons is key to predict the gas and tight oil production from shale formations. However, shale unconventional reservoirs are very different from the conventional reservoirs where hydrocarbons are stored in fractures and big pores which are generally larger than 100 nm. The complexity of shale reservoirs arises from the widely distributed nanopores in shale. Nanopores may result in a large share of adsorption of hydrocarbons and cannot be described by conventional modeling approaches. At nanoscale, distributions of fluid molecules within the pores are inhomogeneous and surface adsorption plays a dominant role in phase behavior and flow. In our research projects, we will use molecular modeling and simulations to explicitly take into account the intermolecular and fluid-surface interactions. It is the overarching goal of our research group to provide reliable phase behavior and flow modeling in shale reservoirs. In the research program outlined in this proposal, we will take the step towards developing a reliable modeling for addressing the challenges in the accurate estimation of hydrocarbon fluid-in-place and flow in shale formation where we have incomplete knowledge to build a fundamental and comprehensive model. Activities in this program use deep mathematical concepts and a thorough understanding of physics to produce reliable guidelines that can be used by practitioners in petroleum industry and by other researchers. The education objective of this program is to expose future HQP to fundamental understandings that are very important to develop reliable modeling for shale gas and tight oil, and to teach them to distill the essential features of these knowledge to make contributions to real-life shale production. The expected contributions arising from the proposed program have the potential to significantly advance the fundamental understandings toward phase behavior and flow of hydrocarbons under nano-confinement. The outcomes of this research will lead to a more accurate and reliable modeling of phase behavior and flow in shale nanoporous media and provide important insights into reservoir simulations. It will facilitate the optimized estimation of fluid-in-place and design of hydrocarbon recovery process. This could help generate a much higher net present value for operating companies and make shale production in Canada more economically feasible.