Pore-Scale Study of Gas Flows in Ultra-tight Porous Media

Lead Research Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

To enhance ultimate recovery of hydrocarbon gases from unconventional gas resources such as shales, we need to uncover the non-intuitive gas transport mechanisms in ultra-tight porous media. Exploiting our previous and recent pioneering work in modelling rarefied gas flows at micro/nano-scales and in pore-scale characterisation of reservoir rocks, we present an ambitious project to tackle this newly-emerged research challenge through developing direct numerical simulation models and techniques that work on binarised images of concerned porous materials. This work will transform the currently-adopted heuristic approaches, i.e. Darcy-like laws and pore network modelling, into those underpinned by the first principle, and enable the quantification of prediction uncertainty on gas transport associated with the former approaches. Timely support now from EPSRC will provide us crucial resources to shape this emerging research area - understanding and quantifying gas flow physics in ultra-tight porous media.

Planned Impact

The proposed pore-scale study of gas flows in ultra-tight porous media is fundamental engineering science. It will allow researchers to thoroughly test widely-used Darcy-like laws that have often been developed on heuristic bases, and to evaluate the pore network modelling for the first time for its usefulness in modelling gas flows in ultra-tight porous media. Therefore, it will transform the current heuristic approaches into those firmly underpinned by first principles. This will provide direct benefit to UK and overseas research institutions and industries in oil and gas sectors. Whenever a new or existing approach is to be shown useful, this study will enable the quantification of uncertainty inherited in that approach, and therefore allow us, for the first time, to make well-informed, reliable and robust prediction of gas recovery rate and producibility where the critical microscopic gas flow needs to be accounted adequately. This will have a profound impact on developing shale gas resources, a policy of UK and many other countries for the purpose of securing energy supply, in particular objectively assessing the economics of shale plays and addressing their potential environmental concerns to living beings.

The multidisciplinary applications of rarefied flows at micro/nano-scales mean this research may then find application in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, mechanical, chemical, environmental and electronics industries: designers, developers and manufacturers will benefit from an enhanced modelling and design capability, e.g. designing gas chromatographs, and next-generation lithographic machines. In the longer term, our work may be incorporated into simulation tools in cognate industries concerned with non-equilibrium transport physics, including modern materials processing, chemical and environmental engineering (e.g. fluidised chemical reactors, pollutant monitoring), and nano-devices (e.g. quantum point contact nano-devices).
 
Description Our findings so far have indicated that the currently experimental measurement method based on Darcy law to measure permeability of ultra-tight porous media may not be appropriate. The gas/surface interactions play a key role in shale gas extraction which is difficult for the current gas kinetic theory to describe. The confinement effects due to small pore space will drastically change the flow physics of shale gas. Meanwhile, we find that the gas kinetic model with efficient multi-level parallel implementation can enable large scale direct simulations on shale rock samples. And the traditional Darcy-like models are not appropriate to use while the pore-network cannot reflect the complex flow features in ultra-tight porous media.
Exploitation Route Journal publications and conference presentations

Our computational codes (PIKS2D and 3D) are now released as open-source software at Github: https://github.com/iPACT-Platform
Sectors Aerospace

Defence and Marine

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Energy

Environment

URL https://github.com/iPACT-Platform
 
Description Our findings have been presented to industrial technology developers. The developed software has been open-released and the training has been provided to the students and researchers at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabe. And a summer school was delivered to about 20 students of China University of Petroleum (Qingdao), which introduced the research findings and developed software.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Energy
Impact Types Economic

 
Description Horizon 2020: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships
Amount € 183,454 (EUR)
Funding ID 793007 - EPSKS - H2020-MSCA-IF-2017 
Organisation European Commission H2020 
Sector Public
Country Belgium
Start 06/2018 
End 07/2020
 
Description Partnership grant
Amount $2,821,415 (USD)
Organisation King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals 
Sector Academic/University
Country Saudi Arabia
Start 03/2018 
End 02/2021
 
Description Partnership project between King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Edinburgh University and Strathclyde University 
Organisation King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Country Saudi Arabia 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution WE provide expertise on gas kinetic solver to understand gas transportation in shale rock and develop upscaling method to link pore-scale to reservoir-scale.
Collaborator Contribution Edinburgh University provides their expertise in molecualr dynamics to understand how gas molecules are interacting with surface and help to establish boundary conditions for gas kinetic solver we are developing. King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals provides research funding and expertise on geo-science.
Impact Ho, MT; Li, J; Wu, L; Reese, J; Zhang, Y (2019) A comparative study of the DSBGK and DVM methods for low-speed rarefied gas flows, Computers and Fluids 181:143-159
Start Year 2018
 
Description Partnership project between King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Edinburgh University and Strathclyde University 
Organisation University of Edinburgh
Department School of Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution WE provide expertise on gas kinetic solver to understand gas transportation in shale rock and develop upscaling method to link pore-scale to reservoir-scale.
Collaborator Contribution Edinburgh University provides their expertise in molecualr dynamics to understand how gas molecules are interacting with surface and help to establish boundary conditions for gas kinetic solver we are developing. King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals provides research funding and expertise on geo-science.
Impact Ho, MT; Li, J; Wu, L; Reese, J; Zhang, Y (2019) A comparative study of the DSBGK and DVM methods for low-speed rarefied gas flows, Computers and Fluids 181:143-159
Start Year 2018
 
Title iPACT-Platform/PIKS2D: The initial release 
Description A 2D pore-scale iterative BGK-equation solver using the discrete velocity method. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2021 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The developed software has been used by College of Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals to quantify flow properties of porous media. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/4483408
 
Title iPACT-Platform/PIKS3D: iPACT-Platform / PIKS3D 
Description First version 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2022 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact This is a 3D pore-scale direct simulation solver using the discrete velocity method, which is highly parallel with two-level parallelization. The rarefied effects can be properly considered and the digital image of the porous media can be directly used. The code has been used by global oil/gas institutions. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/6339242