S

SPE 1597
758

A Fully-C
Coupled Free
F and Adsorptiv
A ve Phasee Transpo
ort Modell for Shalle Gas
R
Reservoirrs Including Non-Darcy Flo
ow Effectts
X
X. Xiong, D. Devegowda,
D G.G.
G Michel, R.F.
R Sigal, an
nd F. Civan, U
University of O
Oklahoma

C
Copyright 2012, Society
y of Petroleum Enginee
ers

T
This paper was prepare
ed for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition
E held in San A
Antonio, Texas, USA, 8
8-10 October 2012.

T
This paper was selected for presentation by an a SPE program comm mittee following review of information containned in an abstract submmitted by the author(s)). Contents of the papeer have not been
re
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um Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic
E reproductionn, distribution, or stora
age of any part of thiss paper without the wrritten consent of the S Society of Petroleum E Engineers is prohibite
ed. Permission to
re
eproduce in print is res
stricted to an abstract of
o not more than 300 words;
w illustrations mayy not be copied. The abbstract must contain co
onspicuous acknowled dgment of SPE copyrig ght.

AAbstract
AAccurate modeeling of gas thrrough shale-gaas reservoirs ch haracterized byy nano-meter ppores where thhe effects of vaarious non-
DDarcy flow reggimes and the adsorbed-layer
a are important is presented aand demonstratted by several examples. Quaantification
oof gas transporrt may be acco omplished usin ng the transporrt equation thaat is valid for aall flow regimes. This equation though
nneeds further modification
m wh hen transport iss through a meedia where the gas is adsorbeed onto the pore wall. In the ppresence of
aadsorption, therre is a pore preessure dependeent loss of poroosity and cross -sectional areaa to free gas traansport. The appparent gas
ppermeability correction is accomplished for f various flo ow regimes uusing the Knuddsen number by considerattion of the
rreduction of thhe cross-sectio onal area to frree gas transpo ort in the pressence of adsorrption. We shhow that transpport in the
aadsorbed layer may contribu ute significantly y in the total gas transport in these nanoppores. An effeective transporrt model is
ppresented to acccount for thee impact of ad dsorption throu ugh two mechhanisms. First,, we modify tthe transport eequation to
aaccount for thee pore-pressuree dependent-red duction in the volume availaable to free gass transport; seccond, we modeel transport
thhrough the addsorbed layer using
u Fick’s laaw of diffusion n. The coupledd model is theen compared tto conventionaal transport
mmodels over a wide
w range of reservoir
r propeerties and cond
ditions.
AAs pore-pressuure is reduced, adsorbed phase gas desorbs into i free gas an
and apparent peermeability inccreases. The diifference in
thhe estimated apparent
a permeeability with an nd without thee considerationn of the adsorpption volume ccan be a factorr of two or
mmore at initial reservoir cond ditions. Diffusiion on the surrface of organiic pores can bee a substantiall transport mecchanism in
sshales dependinng on the pore connectivity, pore
p pressure, and pore size ddistribution in the organic poores. The interppretation of
pproduction dataa will be com mpromised with hout considerin ng the effects of adsorptionn on apparent permeability. This work
immplies that perrmeability meaasurements for shale gas reserrvoirs must be done with metthane at in-situu pore pressurees. Because
thhese correctionns are pore-prressure not efffective pressure dependent, eeffective presssure is not a vvalid parameterr to use in
qquantifying thee pressure depeendence of thesse transport equ uations.

Introduction
SShale gas reserrvoirs are charracterized by pores
p having siizes in the 1-1 00 nm range w where slip effeects and other non-Darcy
fflow regimes become
b increaasingly importtant. Quantification of the aapparent gas ppermeability m may be accom mplished by
cconsideration of
o the relevant prevailing
p flow
w regimes charracterized usingg the Knudsenn number, whicch is the ratio oof the mean
ffree path of thee gas at in-situ conditions andd the hydraulic radius. This coorrection may however be innsufficient in thhe presence
oof adsorption, where the losss of cross-secctional area to o free gas trannsport may be significant w with high TOC C and large
hhydrocarbon in n place. Additionally, transp port in the adssorbed layer m may constitute a significant fraction of the total gas
trransport in these nanopores nearn the hydrau ulic-fracture face.
An accuratee description of gas transport through extrem mely tight poroous media is esssential for acccurate simulatioon of shale
ggas reservoirs. SEM images with Nano-reesolution show w that organicss materials forrm a significannt volume of the matrix
mmaterials. Moreover, a majorr portion of total porosity is contained in ppores in the oorganic materiaal (Ambrose ett al., 2010,
PPassey et al., 2010,
2 Sigal, in process). Thee organic poress are often smaaller than 10nm m in diameter and adsorb a significant
aamount of gas on their surfacces. In pores on o the nanometter scale there is significant deviation from m Darcy’s law due to gas
sslippage and too the increasing g importance of
o molecular co ollisions with tthe pore walls as a source off momentum trransfer. For
oorganic pores the adsorbed layer adds an additional co omplication as transport cann occur in the adsorbed layyer and the
inncreasing adso orption with pore
p pressure produces a po ore pressure ddependent geom metry for the free gas transsport. This
ggeometric chan nge with pore pressure impllies that apparrent permeabillity is intrinsiccally a functioon of pore preessure. Not
aaccounting for this produces a systematic errror that changes with gas preessure. Furtherrmore as adsorrption is controolled by the
2 SPE 159758

pore pressure of the gas, effective pressure is not a suitable parameter form describing the pressure dependence of
permeability in an adsorbing media.
Transport valid over all flow regimes have been quantified by several studies using the Knudsen number, which is the
ratio of the mean-free path and a parameter that characterizes pore size (Beskok and Karniadakis, 1999; Javadpour, 2009;
Civan, 2010; Michael et al., 2011). In organic pores this needs to be modified due to the pore-volume occupied by the
adsorbed layer under. Researchers have pointed out that modification is necessary for void volume available for free gas in-
place calculation (Ambrose, 2010, and Sigal, submitted), but eh effect of the adsorbed layer on transport received less
attention. Sakhaee-Pour et al. (2011) considered the adsorbed layer effect on apparent permeability at different reservoir
conditions for a simple pore network and showed that permeability is overestimated at high pressures, without taking into
account of transport in adsorbed layer.
It is generally recognized that molecules adsorbed on a solid surface are more or less free to move over the surface
(Brunauer, 1943). The mobility of physically adsorbed molecules was firstly demonstrated by Volmer and Adhikari (1925)
for molecules of benzophenone. They also demonstrated that the migration of benzophenone was the result of a surface
concentration gradient. Later, Wentworth (1944) observed the measured fluxes were higher than those predicted for the
viscous, transition, or diffusion flow regimes. The mechanism for this supplementary surface flow is complex. The main
explanation to surface flux is the hopping mechanism. A gas molecule is adsorbed on a low energy site and vibrates. The
activated molecules can then hop between fixed sites with a specific velocity, thus contributing to the surface migration in the
adsorbed phase. A molecule returns to the gaseous phase when it acquires a sufficient amount of energy necessary to escape
from the surface. The existence of the net flux on the surface is a probabilistic phenomenon which depends on the local
concentration gradient and temperature, and the molecule type. An equilibrium sorption isotherm can be assumed because the
exchange rate between the gaseous and adsorbed phases is much higher than the surface flow rate. Thus, the surface flux
makes an additional contribution to the gas-phase transport (Rlando, 2007). The treatment of the two transport mechanisms
acting in parallel is analogous to models describing the electrical transport in shaly formations such as given by Waxman and
Smits (Waxman and Smits, 1968) and Dual Water Model (C. Clavier et al., 1984). Kang et al. (2010) emphasize that the
transport in the organic pores due to surface diffusion could be an important mass transfer mechanism in micro-pores with
large surface area.
This paper describes a transport model to account for the impact of adsorption through two mechanisms: First, we modify
the Knudsen correction to apparent permeability to account for the reduction in the cross-sectional area available to free gas
transport; second, we model transport through the adsorbed layer using the Fick’s law of diffusion. The coupled model is
then tested against conventional transport models over a wide range of reservoir properties and conditions. We propose a
fully coupled free and adsorptive phase transport model to describe gas flow in organic nanopores in the case of gases such as
methane where there is significant adsorption. Our model indicates that gas transport is impacted by adsorption through two
different mechanisms: Firstly, in very small pores, the reduction in the cross-sectional area available to free gas transport can
be substantial; secondly, there is transport in the adsorbed layer itself. Our model assumes a Langmuir adsorption model.
Adsorbed phase transport is based on the Fick’s law of diffusion. Corrections to the cross-sectional area for free gas transport
are based on the volume of gas in adsorbed state. Our modeling results indicate that apparent permeability in the presence of
adsorption modifies the apparent permeability calculated with consideration of slippage only over a wide range of pressures.
The modification in apparent permeability is estimated to be 20% for reservoir pressures and typical sizes for organic pores.
Depending on the value for surface diffusivity, diffusion on the surface of organic pores can be a significant transport
mechanism in organic pores.

Formulation of Apparent Permeability through a single nano-capillary tube

Darcy’s law cannot describe the actual gas behavior and transfer in nano porous media. In such porous media, fluid flow
goes beyond viscous flow to attain slip, transition, or free molecular flow conditions. Current studies report that pore sizes in
shale gas reservoirs lie in the range of 3-100nm (Hartman et al., 2011), so that gas flow can be outside of the viscous flow
regime depending on prevailing pressure and temperature conditions. We adopt a unified model that is the generalized model
of Beskok and Karniadakis (1999), which describes flow through a narrow circular capillary tube for all flow regimes. For a
capillary tube of radius Rh , the intrinsic permeability (permeability to flow of a viscous non-reacting ideal liquid) is given
as

Rh2
K  (1a)
8
And the total volumetric flow Q that corresponds to K  is given in terms of the pressure gradient dP / dx and the viscosity
as
K  dP
Q  Rh2 (1b)
 dx
SPE 159758 3

The adsorbed molecules on the pore wall reduce which reduces both the permeability and cross sectional area. This
loss is a function of gas pressure.
The Langmuir isotherm, which characterizes monolayer adsorption, is the model most used in characterization of shale
gas reservoirs, but other models such as BET for multilayers and Kisliuk for probabilistic adsorption also exist. From a
molecular dynamic calculation done for methane in graphite pores (Ambrose et al, 2010, Sigal et al., submitted), there is a
high-density layer of the approximate size of methane molecules near the surface of the pore wall. The density then reduces
in a couple of methane thicknesses to that of a free gas. Although this study shows that a monolayer model is not exact it
shows, it is a reasonable model to use for this study. In the Langmuir model, the adsorbed phase concentration C is the total
moles of adsorbed gas in the total volume taken up by adsorbed layer. At pressure P , it is given by a two-parameter equation.
The parameter Ca max is the adsorbed phase concentration at infinite pore pressure. It corresponds to the state where the
adsorbed molecules completely tile the surface. PL is Langmuir pressure.

P / PL
Ca  Ca max (2)
1  P / PL

The effective hydraulic radius Reff is defined as the radius corrected for the presence of adsorbed gas molecules.
Assuming Langmuir adsorption, the molecules form a single adsorbed layer that in the high-pressure limit completely cover
the pore wall surface. Therefore in the high-pressure limit, is the radius of pore size reduced by the diameter of gas
molecules d m residing on the surface, Reff  Rh  d m . In the low-pressure limit, it becomes the pore hydraulic radius ( Rh ) .
At intermediate pressures the adsorbed layer acts as a rough surface. We will use a Langmuir type functional relationship to
interpolate between the end points so that
P / PL
Reff  Rh  d m (3)
1  P / PL

In a general porous media the loss in cross-sectional area is equivalent to the loss in porosity, so that the effective porosity
(eff ) is defined as
2
Reff
eff  (4)
Rh2

For the smallest tube radii considered here and the diameter of a methane molecule, this expression for the ratio differs by at
most a few percent from the ratio of the volume after adsorption to the original volume that would be calculated directly by
subtracting the volume of the adsorbed layer from the total pore volume. In the presence of adsorption, the reduction in
effective porosity is estimated for different pore sizes in diameter without any stress effects for Langmuir pressure of
1800 psia . It increases as pressure declines, as shown in Fig. 1.

1
Φ(Pore Pressure)/Φ(zero 

0.9

0.8
pressure)

pore size = 2nm
0.7 pore size = 5nm
pore size = 10nm
0.6

0.5
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Pore Pressure,  psia
Fig.1 Porosity lost to adsorbed layer
4 SPE 159758

The expressions for permeability and volumetric flow in the presence of adsorption are obtained by replacing Rh by Reff
in Eq.1a and Eq.1b.
Rewriting Eq.1b one has for the volumetric flow in the presence of adsorption,
2
Reff 1 dP eff Reff
2
dP
Q  Reff
2
 Rh2 (5a)
8  dx 8 dx

For convenience the adsorption modified intrinsic permeability K a is defined as

eff ( P ) Reff
2
( P)
K a  (5b)
8
As the effective radii and porosity increases with pressure depletion, the intrinsic permeability increases. At in-situ
pressure conditions, when most of the open spots on pore surface are covered with the adsorbed gas molecules, the intrinsic
permeability is overestimated if a model without considering volume correction is used. As pressure decreases, adsorbed
phase expels the gas molecules into the free gas phase thus making more pore-space available and consequently increasing
the intrinsic permeability by production of gas from nano pores. A 2nm diameter tube has an intrinsic permeability from
Eq.1a of 127nD . Fig.2 plots K  and K a as a function of gas pressure for PL  1800 psia . It can be seen that there is a very
significant decrease. This decrease is though not the whole effect of adsorption. To get a final adsorption correction to
transport K a must be modified to account for the effects of being in a non-Darcy flow regime, and transport in the adsorbed
phase by surface diffusion must be added.

140

120
Intrinsic  Permeability,  nD

100
K∞
80
Ka∞
60

40

20
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Pore Pressure, psia
Fig.2 Adsorption impact on intrinsic permeability for a 2nm pore

Transport by Surface Diffusion

We examine diffusion in single adsorbed layer in one narrow capillary tube. For the Langmuir isotherm, there is local
equilibrium between the gaseous and adsorbed phases. A reasonable assumption is that the volumetric and surface fluxes add
linearly (Cunningham, 1980). It is assumed that the adsorption process is sufficiently rapid that the amount of adsorbed gas
satisfies the Langmuir equation despite diffusion occurring along the surface at any element of surface. The Langmuir
isotherm indicates that the concentration of adsorbed layer increase in the direction of increasing pressure. This concentration
gradient induces a mass flux in the adsorbed layer described by Fick’s first law of diffusion (Eq.7). Therefore, a pressure
gradient in the free gas causes free gas flow supplemented with flow in the adsorbed layer. The concentration of adsorbed
molecules, which is also temperature dependent, accounts for the temperature effect on the Langmuir isotherm. However, the
factor of temperature is beyond the scope of the study here.
The quantitative model applied to surface flux is Fick’s law, in which the adsorbed gas molecules can be considered as
sliding along the surface under the effect of a concentration gradient. The use of Fick’s type equation for adsorbed state
transport is discussed in Cunningham and Williams (1980). Molar flux J a ( mol /(cm 2  s )) is given in terms of the
concentration gradient dCa / dx as

dCa
Ja  D (6)
dx

in which D is the surface diffusivity coefficient, cm 2 / s , Ca is the concentration of adsorbed phase, in / ,

calculated assuming Langmuir adsorption.
SPE 159758 5

The surface diffusivity that relates molar flow rate and concentration gradient is a function of concentration gradient
itself (Rolando and Roque-Malherbe, 2007) and temperature (Do et al., 2001). The temperature dependence of surface
diffusivity is complicated because the absorbed concentration is also dependent on temperature. The value of the surface
diffusion coefficient is not well known because it is difficult to determine by measurement. Its variation with adsorbed
molecules and porous material involved is complex. To get some range for D we examined diffusivity of super critical
methane as a function of pressure. In an unpublished report Hirasaki, Appel and Freeman present a correlation for the
methane self-diffusion coefficient based on a wide range of published experimental data. The equation is a function of
temperature and methane density. Examining this correlation for typical reservoir temperatures as a function of pressure it
appears to flatten with increasing pressure. This correlation suggests a value of roughly 1  10 3 cm 2 / s as a high-pressure
limit (see Fig.3). Akkutlu and Fathi (2011) estimated the surface diffusion coefficient by modeling gas transport with two
types of diffusion. Their history matched result for surface diffusion coefficient is 1  10 2 cm 2 / s .

5.0E‐03
Diffusion Coefficient (cm2/sec)

4.5E‐03
308 K
4.0E‐03 333 K
3.5E‐03 350 K
3.0E‐03 363 K
2.5E‐03
2.0E‐03
1.5E‐03
1.0E‐03
5.0E‐04
0.0E+00
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Pressure (psia)
Fig. 3 Methane gas self-diffusion coefficient based on the Hirasaki et al. regression equation
D
( 106 0.7  2.64  1.26  11 2 where  is in g / cm3 , D is in cm 2 / s and T is absolute temperature)
T

Combined Transport
Transport in single capillary tube of uniform length is investigated at three levels of modeling. At first, only non-Darcy
flow effect is considered in the apparent permeability. A unified flow model for all flow regimes (Beskok and Karniadakis,
1999) is used to estimate the deviation from Darcy’s law. The Beskok-Karniadakis model is more comprehensive than simple
sum of viscous flow and molecule diffusion (Michel et al, 2011). The apparent permeability at this first level of modeling is
given below.
K  K  f ( Kn) (7a)

According to this model, the volumetric flux of gas through single tube without taking into account of adsorption is as
below
K dP
Q  Rh2 (7b)
 dx
We make the assumption that in more general pore systems, the complexities of the pore geometry are all captured in the
term referred to as the intrinsic permeability and that f (Kn ) keeps the same form with substitution of a characteristic size
for the radius. The Knudsen number (Kn ) is the ratio of the gas mean-free path (  ) with regard to hydraulic radius ( Rh ) ,
given by

Kn  (8)
Rh

There is not an established formulation for mean free path for real gas, so the ideal gas mean free path formula has been
used. In Eq.10, k B is the Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute temperature.
6 SPE 159758

k BT
 (9)
2Pd m2

The function f (Kn ) provides the additional term to make the permeability acceptable in all flow regimes.

4 Kn
f ( Kn )  (1  Kn )(1  ) (10a)
1  bKn
The parameter  in Eq.11a is a dimensionless rarefaction coefficient, Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) give it as
128
 tan 1 ( 4 Kn 0.4 ) (10b)
15 2
Coefficient b is generally treated as 1 for full-slippage.
At the second level of modeling, the pore volume occupied by adsorbed layer is taken into account and therefore intrinsic
permeability becomes pressure dependent. Also, the hydraulic radius for the Knudsen number estimation is updated with
effective radii at the current pressure condition. The apparent permeability at second level is given by
K a  K a ( P ) f ( Kn ) (11)

The third level incorporates diffusion in the adsorbed layer in addition to the non-Darcy flow and desorption effect.
Molar flow rate per unit area in the adsorbed layer in terms of pressure difference is then obtained from Eq.2 and Eq.6
Ca max PL dP
Ja  D (12)
( P  PL ) 2 dx

Mass flow rate in the adsorbed layer is then expressed below

2
MCa max PL dP 2 DMCa max PL Reff dP
m a  D  ( Rh
2
 R 2
eff )  Rh (1  ) (13)
( P  PL ) 2
dx ( P  PL ) 2 2
Rh dx

in which M is the molecular weight of methane.

The mass flux of free gas Knudsen flow with volume correction for adsorbed layer is given below
K a dP
m f  Rh2 (14)
 dx
where  is the real gas density and  is the real gas viscosity. The Total mass flux in single capillary tube is the summation
of non-Darcy Knudsen flow for free gas and surface diffusion in adsorbed layer,

Rh2  MC a max PL
2
Reff  dP
m  m a  m f   aK  D  (1  ) (15)
  ( P  PL ) 2 Rh2  dx

Therefore, the apparent permeability in single capillary tube with both Knudsen diffusion and surface diffusion is given
below. This apparent permeability is the third level which combines all the transport mechanism in nano pores.
2
MCa max PL Reff MCa max PL
K ad  K a  D (1  )  K a  D (1  eff ) (16)
( P  PL ) 2 Rh2 ( P  PL ) 2

The parameters used for apparent permeability evaluation are given in Table.1.

Table.1 parameters used for calculation

parameter Value
, / 0.02504
, 1800
, 0.38
, / 1.3806504 10

The apparent permeabilities at the above-mentioned three levels of modeling are plotted respectively in Fig.4 for a 2nm
size pore and Fig.5 for 5nm size pore. Fig.4 (a) illustrates the apparent permeability from fracture face pressure to initial
reservoir pressure, and in Fig.4 (b) they are re-plotted for the higher pressure range. The three permeability values separate
SPE 159758 7

from one another at different pressure range. In Fig.4 (b), K a is significantly smaller than K , which indicates that apparent
permeability is constrained due to volume lost to adsorbed layer. In organic pores, where a substantial gas is adsorbed to
organic materials, gas is more difficult to produce than in pores where no adsorption occurs given the same pore throat
network. However, as gas is depleted from nano pores, more pore volume is made available and apparent permeability
increases. At lower pressures or at fracture face, apparent permeability, the adsorbed volume is small, and so that the non-
Darcy effects dominate transport in Fig.4. The three permeabilities are plotted for a 5nm size pore. Again, a considerable
reduction in permeability is seen at higher pressure.

3000 900
K K
2500 800

Apparent Permeability,  nD
Apparent Permeability,  nD

Ka Ka
700
2000 Kad Kad
600
1500 500
400
1000 300
500 200
100
0 0
300 2300 4300 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Pore Pressure,  psia Pore Pressure, psia

(a) (b)
Fig.4 Apparent permeability of methane at three levels for a 2nm pore
( T  350K , D  1  10 3 cm 2 / s in K ad , (a) wide pressure range; (b) high pressure range)

7500 3000
K K
Apparent Permeability, nD
Apparent Permeability, nD

6500 Ka Ka
2500
Kad Kad
5500
4500 2000

3500 1500
2500
1000
1500
500 500
300 2300 4300 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Pore Pressure, psia Pore Pressure, psia
(a) (b)
Fig.5 Apparent permeability of methane at three levels for a 5nm pore
( T  350K , D  1  10 3 cm 2 / s in K ad , (a) wide pressure range; (b) high pressure range)

The summary of the ratio of apparent permeability including volume reduction by adsorption and surface diffusion to the
permeability where adsorption is ignored is illustrated in Fig.6. The solid lines, representing K a / K , shows pore volume
occupied by adsorbed layer impacts gas permeability more significantly in pores ranging from 2-10nm. At early production
stage, this impact is more significant and then as gas is produced, gas permeability increases more rapidly at lower pressures.
The dashed lines, representing K ad / K a , deviate from solid lines mainly at lower pressures for pore sizes smaller than
5nm. The volume taken up by adsorption becomes less important in bigger pores, so its effect on flow is less.
The value of the surface diffusivity coefficient also plays a large role in determining the gas transport in the adsorbed
layer. Different values of diffusivity coefficient are assumed for evaluating surface diffusion in Fig.7. Apparent permeability
is more sensitive to surface diffusivity coefficient at lower pressures, in view of the previous discussion. Surface diffusion is
more likely coming to play at fracture face when organic pores intersecting with fracture face are well-connected.
8 S
SPE 159758

Fig.6 Ratio of appa

arent permeab
bility for 2nm, 5nm, 10nm aand 50nm porees

Fig.7 Surfacce diffusivity coefficient

c effeect on ratio off apparent perrmeability witth volume corrrection and ad
dsorbed
phase diffusion to permeability
p ig
gnoring adsorrption for 5nm
m diameter pore

AApparent perrmeability in bundle of ca apillary tubes

In reality, sh
hale gas reserv
voirs do not hav ve uniform porre sizes. To invvestigate the efffects of size vaariation, a bunddle of
ccapillary tubes of distributed radii
r is studied
d. We examine the apparent ppermeability foor three types oof bundles of loog-normal
ppore size distribbutions (Fig.8)). The probability of each rad
dii (r ) occurrinng is f (r ) , andd the parameteers for each distribution
aare given in Tab ble 2. The effeective porosity and apparent permeability
p foor three levels aare representedd below, by exttending
thhe approach off Michel et al. (2011, 2012).

eff   dm
reff2 Nf ( r )dr (17)

 
K dm 8
r 4 f ( Kn )Nf ( r ) dr (18)
S
SPE 159758 9

 
Ka  
4
reff f ( Kn ) Nf ( r)dr (19)
dm 8

  4 2 

MCa max PL 2
K ad   reff f ( Kn )  D ( r  reff )Nf ( r )dr (20)
dm 8
 ( P  PL ) 2

In the abov
ve formulationss, the parameteer is the num
mber of capillaary tubes per uunit area. The llog-normal disttribution is
inn the form of:
1  Inr    2
  
1
f (r)  e 2   (21)
r 2 
inn which  is th
he standard deviation and  is the mean, thhe median of thhe porous mediia is In .
The Knudseen correction iss also a functio
on or radii,
r   4
f ( Kn )  ( )(1  ) (22)
r r  b
The effective raadii reff occurrring in Eq.17, Eq.19
T E and Eq.2
20 is defined beelow,

P
reff  r  d m (23)
P  PL

Pore sizes smaller

s than meethane molecule size are considered for thee integration.

Fig.8 Pore siize distribution for pore thrroat network iin shales

Tablee.2 parameterrs for pore sizee distributions

Bundlle A Bundle B Bundle C unit
median ( In ) 15.2 5.6 3.4 nm
scale parameterr ( ) 0.79
94 0.5 0.353
tube density (N
( ) E+10
2.04E 3.23E+111 1.13E+12 tubes/in2

intrinsic permeaability
54.159 1.427 0.248 µD
at zero pressure ( K  )

The fraction
n of porosity lo
ost to adsorbedd layer at differrent pressure coonditions are pplotted in Fig.9. The porosity reduction
inn narrow pore size distributio
on is more subsstantial compaared with widerr pore size distrributions. The overestimationn of
eeffective porosiity is approxim
mately 15% at in-situ
i reservoiir condition. Inn Sigal et al. (suubmitted to Pettrophysics) thee
eexperimental gaas storage dataa for a Barnett sample
s had thee free gas poro sity at 4000 pssia methane prressure reducedd to 68%
oof the gas porossity without ad
dsorption loss, so these distribbutions may unnderestimate thhe effects of addsorption.
10 S
SPE 159758

Fig.9
9 Effective porrosity reductio
on due to volu
ume adsorbed layer for diffeerent pore sizee distributionss

K is the peermeability witth no adsorptio

on while K a co onsiders pore vvolume occupieed by adsorbedd layer in addittion to
nnon-Darcy flow w. The impact ofo adsorption reduces
r parent permeabbility significanntly, by about 11000nD at 5000 psia , for
the app
a wide pore size distribution (bundle
( A, Fig.10a). For an in ntermediate poore size distribuution (bundle B B, Fig.10b) andd narrow
bution (bundle C, Fig.10c), adsorption volu
ppore size distrib ume still plays a big role in reeducing apparent permeabilityy and thus
a significant redduction in appaarent permeabiility is seen at high
h pressure. In Fig.11, in aaddition to non--Darcy flow efffect and
ppore volume reduction, surfacce diffusion of diffusivity coeefficient of 1cm m 2 / s is includeed, representedd by K ad . The
ccontribution fro n the adsorbed layer is almostt negligible forr wide pore sizze distribution. But as the porre size
om diffusion in
ddistribution goees narrows dowwn to smaller scale, surface diffusion
d enhannces the permeaability significantly at low prressures.
SPE 159758 11

(a)

(b)
( (c)
Fig.10 Adso
orption effects on apparent permeability for bundles off distributed ccapillary tubes ((a)median:115.2nm,
scale:0.7
794,range:0.38
8-1000nm; (b)mmedian:5.6nmm, scale:0.5,range:0.38-10000nm;
(c)med
dian:3.4nm,sca
ale:0.353,rangge:0.38-1000nm m)
12 S
SPE 159758

(a)

(b)
( (c)
Fig.11 Traansport in adssorbed layer im
mpact on apparent permeaability for bun
ndles of distrib
buted capillaryy tube
((a)m
median:15.2nmm, scale:0.794,rrange:0.38-1000nm; (b)med dian:5.6nm, sccale:0.5,rangee:0.38-1000nm
m;
(c)median:3.4
( 53,range:0.38- 1000nm) ( D  1cm / s )
nm,scale:0.35 2
S
SPE 159758 13

WWe then plot th

he permeabilityy correction forr adsorption in Fig.12. The gaap between sollid lines and daashed lines inddicates the
nnecessary adjusstment in transp
port equation when
w adsorptioon is present esspecially in tighht formations llike shale gas rreservoirs.

Fig.12 Adsorp
ption impact on
o apparent p
permeability correction

CConclusions
WWe have develo oped a shale gaas transport mo odel that incorp
porates the effe
fects of gas adsorption. The mmodel has gas trransport in
thhe adsorbed ph hase and accou unts for the voluume lost to avaailable space fo
for free gas trannsportation duee to the volumee taken up
bby the adsorbed d gas. Through h modeling the gas transport, it’s demonstraated that adsorpption reduces aapparent permeeability
ssignificantly, byy as much as a factor of two in small pores at reservoir prressure. For a bbundle of poress the reductionn is less but
sstill significant. Surface diffusion is likely to
o be more impo ortant at low ppressure in porees smaller thann 5nm. This thoough
ddepends on the value of surface diffusivity, which is not wellw known. Thhis work demonnstrates that peermeability
mmeasurements for f shale gas reeservoirs need to be made wiith methane at ppore pressures that range oveer all the pressuures that
wwill be found during
d T adsorption effect is most likely much m
reservoirr production. The more significantt than geomechhanical
eeffects except in the case of production
p conttrolled by gas stored
s in fractuures. For accuraate productionn forecasts perm
meability
nneeds to vary with
w pore pressu ure to account for adsorptionn effects. Measuurements donee at effective prressure do not capture
thhe effects of addsorption so arre not adequatee to describe peermeability at rreservoir condiitions.

AAcknowledge ements
WWe gratefully acknowledge the funding from RPSEA (The Univer sity of Oklahhoma Subcontrract No. 091222-11) and
ooperating and service
s compan
nies in our conssortium who prrovide supportt for the work ddone here.

R
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