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).
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).
People |
ORCID iD |
Yonghao Zhang (Principal Investigator) | |
Tom Scanlon (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Germanou L
(2018)
Intrinsic and apparent gas permeability of heterogeneous and anisotropic ultra-tight porous media
in Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering
Gu Q
(2021)
Computational methods for pore-scale simulation of rarefied gas flow
in Computers & Fluids
Ho M
(2019)
Pore-scale simulations of rarefied gas flows in ultra-tight porous media
in Fuel
Ho M
(2019)
A multi-level parallel solver for rarefied gas flows in porous media
in Computer Physics Communications
Ho M
(2016)
Comparative study of the Boltzmann and McCormack equations for Couette and Fourier flows of binary gaseous mixtures
in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
Hu K
(2017)
A comparative study of boundary conditions for lattice Boltzmann simulations of high Reynolds number flows
in Computers & Fluids
Ioannou N
(2017)
Droplet Dynamics of Newtonian and Inelastic Non-Newtonian Fluids in Con?nement
in Micromachines
Ioannou N
(2016)
Droplet dynamics in confinement
in Journal of Computational Science
Shan B
(2020)
Discrete unified gas kinetic scheme for all Knudsen number flows. IV. Strongly inhomogeneous fluids.
in Physical review. E
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 |