Search Results (4)

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) typically exist in the form of powders or dispersed crystals, which limits their direct application in practical engineering scenarios that require monolithic structures and processability. To address this issue, the present study successfully anchored MOF (zeolitic imidazolate framework-8, ZIF-8) nanocrystals within a porous silicon carbide (p-SiC) substrate via a facile in situ growth strategy, achieving both stable macroscopic loading and intimate microscopic interfacial bonding. The resulting ZIF-8/p-SiC composite exhibits a hierarchical porous structure, with a specific surface area approximately 183 times higher than that of the raw p-SiC, alongside a substantially enhanced CO₂ adsorption capacity. By utilizing a low-cost p-SiC support and mild ZIF-8 synthesis conditions, this work demonstrates excellent reproducibility and scalability, providing a facile and effective pathway for fabricating MOF/porous media composite systems that possess both superior mechanical properties and tailored pore structures. Additionally, the developed MOF/p-SiC composites can serve as controllable rock-analog porous media, offering new perspectives for investigating MOF-rock interfacial interactions and CO₂ geological sequestration mechanisms, thereby establishing an organic link between fundamental materials science and geological engineering applications. Full article

Relative permeability, as a key parameter characterizing multiphase fluid flow behavior in porous media, holds significant importance across various fields, such as reservoir evaluation and engineering geology. However, measuring relative permeability is time-consuming and costly. Considering the analogy between fluid flow and electrical current conduction provides a novel approach for studying multiphase flow characteristics using resistivity data. An integrated oil–water relative permeability and resistivity co-measurement experiment was specifically designed for a complex argillaceous sandstone reservoir in a block, referred to as Block A. Research has shown that as the resistance coefficient increases, the water and oil relative permeability decrease and increase, respectively. As the porosity–permeability comprehensive index increases and the shale content decreases, corresponding to the same resistance coefficient, the water and oil relative permeability show increasing and decreasing trends, respectively. The integration of tortuous capillary tube theory and three-water model concepts, combined with the flow-current similarity principle, has enabled the development of a novel relative permeability–resistivity correlation model that is applicable to complex argillaceous sandstone formations. The application of actual data from the study area shows that the relative errors of the water- and oil-phase relative permeability calculated by the proposed model are both small, at 16% and 8.6%, respectively. The model is validated to better characterize multiphase fluid flow in rocks, offering a new approach for accurately calculating relative permeability based on formation resistivity data. Full article

Natural gas hydrates (primarily methane hydrates) are considered to be an important and promising unconventional source of hydrocarbons. Most natural gas hydrate accumulations exist in pore space and are associated with reservoir rocks. Therefore, gas hydrate studies in porous media are of particular interest, as well as, the phase equilibria of pore hydrates, including the determination of equilibrium pore water content (nonclathrated water). Nonclathrated water is analogous to unfrozen water in permafrost soils and has a significant effect on the properties of hydrate-bearing reservoirs. Nonclathrated water content in hydrate-saturated porous media will depend on many factors: pressure, temperature, gas composition, the mineralization of pore water, etc. In this paper, the study is mostly focused on the effect of hydrate-forming gas pressure on nonclathrated water content in hydrate-bearing soils. To solve this problem, simple thermodynamic equations were proposed which require data on pore water activity (or unfrozen water content). Additionally, it is possible to recalculate the nonclathrated water content data from one hydrate-forming gas to another using the proposed thermodynamic equations. The comparison showed a sufficiently good agreement between the calculated nonclathrated water content and its direct measurements for investigated soils. The discrepancy was ~0.15 wt% and was comparable to the accuracy of direct measurements. It was established that the effect of gas pressure on nonclathrated water content is highly nonlinear. For example, the most pronounced effect of gas pressure on nonclathrated water content is observed in the range from equilibrium pressure to 6.0 MPa. The developed thermodynamic technique can be used for different hydrate-forming gases such as methane, ethane, propane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, various gas mixtures, and natural gases. Full article

We present a new conceptual approach for modeling of fluid flows in random porous media based on explicit exploration of the treelike geometry of complex capillary networks. Such patterns can be represented mathematically as ultrametric spaces and the dynamics of fluids by ultrametric diffusion. The images of p-adic fields, extracted from the real multiscale rock samples and from some reference images, are depicted. In this model the porous background is treated as the environment contributing to the coefficients of evolutionary equations. For the simplest trees, these equations are essentially less complicated than those with fractional differential operators which are commonly applied in geological studies looking for some fractional analogs to conventional Euclidean space but with anomalous scaling and diffusion properties. It is possible to solve the former equation analytically and, in particular, to find stationary solutions. The main aim of this paper is to attract the attention of researchers working on modeling of geological processes to the novel utrametric approach and to show some examples from the petroleum reservoir static and dynamic characterization, able to integrate the p-adic approach with multifractals, thermodynamics and scaling. We also present a non-mathematician friendly review of trees and ultrametric spaces and pseudo-differential operators on such spaces. Full article