Methane adsorption comparison of different thermal maturity kerogens in shale gas system

To determine the effect of thermal maturity on the methane sorption in shale gas system, two different thermal maturity kerogens of type II isolated from Barnett shale of Fort Worth Basin were used to measure the methane adsorption amount under the pressure ranging from 0 to 14 MPa at constant temperatures. One kerogen was called Lee C-5-1 with 0.58% of vitrinite reflectance; the other was called Blakely#1 kerogen with 2.01% of vitrinite reflectance. The results suggested that the methane sorption capacity of kerogen Blakely#1 was higher than the immature kerogen Lee C-5-1, and its Langmuir constant and Langmuir maximum sorption amount, which were reached by fitting the measured data for at least square method, greater than the immature kerogen Lee C-5-1. This may be associated with that nanopores opened up during the degradation of organic matter, and which increased the specific surface area of kerogen. Therefore, the over mature kerogen has greater methane adsorption capacity. © 2014, Science Press, Institute of Geochemistry, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.