Temperature Effect on Interactions of Oil Droplet with Water-wetted Shale Kerogen at Reservoir Temperatures

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to analyze how temperature influences the thermodynamics of oil-kerogen interactions in shale reservoirs, revealing a linear relationship between desorption free energy and temperature.

Contribution

It provides new molecular-level insights into the temperature dependence of oil desorption from kerogen, aiding improved recovery strategies in unconventional reservoirs.

Findings

Desorption free energy scales linearly with temperature.

Strong temperature dependence indicates significant entropic effects.

Contact angle correlates linearly with desorption free energy.

Abstract

Understanding the thermodynamics of the interfacial interactions between oil and kerogen is imperative for recovering hydrocarbon in tight reservoirs, especially in unconventional shale that retains abundant hydrocarbon in kerogen nanopores. The temperature effect on the interactions of light oil with a type II kerogen in water was investigated using molecular dynamics simulation. Non-polar and polar light oil droplets were modeled with clusters of 30 octane molecules and 30 octanethiol molecules, respectively. Kerogen was modeled with a molecular fragment from a type II kerogen. The free energy calculations were performed at constant volume and temperature with umbrella sampling at temperatures in the range of 300--500 K (27--227 {\deg}C, 80--440 {\deg}F), comparable to the reservoir conditions of common shale plays. The result shows that the free energy of desorption of an oil droplet scales linearly with temperature. For oil droplets, the desorption free energy cannot be quantitatively scaled up from that of a single oil molecule. Additionally, the free energy of desorption exhibited a strong temperature dependence, suggesting a significant entropic contribution to the free energy. The contact angle of oil droplets was estimated by the morphologies of the oil cluster in contact with the kerogen surface, identified at the lowest free energy point in the free energy profile. The cosine of the contact angle is linearly correlated with the free energy of the desorption. This study provides a thermodynamic basis and molecular details on how temperature affects the oil interactions with kerogen, providing a valuable insight to strategy for improving unconventional oil recovery.