Kerogen properties

Table 3. Summaiy of methods of correlating kerogen properties with Fischer assay oil yields."...

The recovery of petroleum from sandstone and the release of kerogen from oil shale and tar sands both depend strongly on the microstmcture and surface properties of these porous media. The interfacial properties of complex liquid agents—mixtures of polymers and surfactants—are critical to viscosity control in tertiary oil recovery and to the comminution of minerals and coal. The corrosion and wear of mechanical parts are influenced by the composition and stmcture of metal surfaces, as well as by the interaction of lubricants with these surfaces. Microstmcture and surface properties are vitally important to both the performance of electrodes in electrochemical processes and the effectiveness of catalysts. Advances in synthetic chemistry are opening the door to the design of zeolites and layered compounds with tightly specified properties to provide the desired catalytic activity and separation selectivity. 

Application of surface active agents has demonstrated that kerogen forms a protective coating around the mineral matrix. This coating impedes the contacting of mineral with leachable liquid (1) and may be the primary cause of the impermeability and stress properties of the oil shale (2). 

PAHs in soil may partition into soil organic matter (SOM) or adsorb on soil minerals. The sorptive properties of SOM fractions for organic contaminants in soil play an important role on the transportation of PAHs in soil. Xiao et al. (2004) has reported that soil/sediment organic matter can be fractionated into four fractions with a combined wet chemical procedure and that kerogen and black carbon (BC) are major SOM components in soil/sediment samples collected from the industrialized suburban areas of Guangzhou, China. Phenanthrene and naphthalene were used as the sorbates to study PAH s sorption isotherms on four original and four Soxhlet-extracted soil/sediment samples, 15 isolated SOM fractions, and a char as the sorbents. The sorption isotherms of phenanthrene and naphthalene on all the sorbents were variously nonlinear. The particulate kerogen and black carbon (KB) fractions... 

Samples. Three immature sulfur-rich sedimentary rock samples were selected for study of both the kerogens and extractable bitumens. Selected properties of the specific samples together with references to previous descriptions and investigations of these deposits are as follows ... 

The different properties of sulfur-rich kerogen and asphaltenes, on the one hand, and sulfur-rich resins on the other hand (flash pyrolysis behaviour) may be explained only by differences in degree of (sulfur) cross-linking and thus by differences in molecular size and in degree of condensation. 

The thermal properties of Devonian shale are quite different from those of Green River oil shale. The associated pyrite in kerogen concentrate may contribute greatly to the effect on thermal degradation of Devonian gas-bearing shale. For the first time DSC was applied to determining thermal properties of Devonian shale as well as Green River oil shale. 

Keroplast rheologic properties do not depend on the composition production method and type of kerogene mineral component. 

In Table 6, we can see the average thermophysical properties of kerogenes as compared to the values of the same characteristics of thermoplasts. Thermophysical properties of processed compositions in the area of phase transitions are of prime importance. In Table 6, we can see the avera values of the corresponding thermal co-efficients at 100-150 °C. The data for polymers are cited from [69,70]. Assuming that there are no local thermal tensions in the melt, we can calculate the composition s thermal linear expansion coefficient by the additive equation [69,70] ... 

Table 6. Comparison of thermophysical properties of Kerogenes and thermoplasts at the temperatures 100-150 °C...

To separately study the influence of rheological properties on the length of filling, the authors of the quoted works initially studied kerogene-90-filled PS keroplasts. As demonstrated in Tabled, in this case, thermophysical characteristics of the composition are similar to those of basic polystyrene. The result in this cas was simple, as expected ... 

Anisotropy of mechanical properties at the increase of filler concentration [70, 78] rises significantly in the items produced from mineral media-filled thermoplasts. When a mineral filler is replaced for a mineralorganic, the dfect of mechanical anisotropy increase fades considerably [18]. At the same time cp values, durability of cold seal moulded products, made of kerogenes is higher than in products of mineral materials-filled compositions [18]. 

We conclude that it is possible to determine the maturity of a sediment by examination of the properties of kerogen and tetrapyrrole pigments. In fact, a fairly detailed reconstruction of the chemical events surrounding a Miocene intrusion into a Cretaceous shale has been possible. 

Humic substances in marine sediments originate from both marine and terrestrial sources of organic matter, depending on the nature of sedimentary input. In some cases, a set of criteria based on chemical properties makes it possible to determine their origin. However, these criteria are less clear-cut than those established for kerogens. 

Coal is formed from peat and the vascular plant remains that accumulate in peat bogs. Anaerobic conditions are considered mandatory for the accumulation and preservation of peat and the formation of coal. Two major types of coals are known humic coal and sapropelic coal (see Breger, 1963, 1976). The former are formed from peat accumulations rich in humic substances derived predominantly from vascular plant remains. The latter represent coal formed from algal (boghead coal) or spore (cannel coal) accumulations. In many respects, sapropelic coal can be considered to have an aquatic origin similar to that of humin of aquatic sediments which forms from the accumulation of aquatic nonvascular plant debris in clastic sediments. Conversely, kerogen can also have the properties of humic coals (Breger and Brown, 1962) is the source materials to the sediment at the time of deposition are predominantly derived from vascular plants. 

Material Constants, Elastic wave velocities have been obtained for oil shale by ultrasonic methods for various modes of propagation. Elastic constants can be inferred from these data if the oil shale is assumed to be a transversely isotropic solid (9). This is a reasonable approximation considering the bedded nature of the rock. Many of the properties of oil shale depend on the grade (kerogen content), which in turn is correlated with the density ( 10). The high pressure behavior of oil shale under shock loading has been studied in gas-gun impact experiments (11). 

A number of different properties of both the sorbent and the sorbing solute will determine which of the conditions shown in Figure 3 most closely describes their interactions with each other. On the part of the sorbent, these properties include organic carbon content, organic structure (e.g., kerogen... 

CoNNAN, J. Cassou, A. M. 1980. Properties of gases and petroleum liquids derived from terrestrial kerogen at various maturation levels. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 44, 1-23. 

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