Impacting Factors, Dynamic Process, and Correction of Adsorption Reduction in Shale Reservoir: A Case Study on Shale Samples from the Western Guizhou

Adsorption reduction occurring during isothermal experiment leads to the failure of telling the true adsorption capacity of shale reservoir. A correct understanding of this will be helpful in improving the accuracy of resource estimation and economic evaluation of shale gas reserves. Six shale samples were collected from the Permian Longtan Formation in the western Guizhou Province, China. Volumetric methane isotherm adsorption experiment and data processing were conducted in this research. The study investigates the effect of free space volume reduction (FSVR), excess adsorption amount conversion (EAAC), and blank test correction (BTC) on adsorption reduction, the understanding of the dynamic process of adsorption reduction, and the evaluation of the way of weakening and correcting this phenomenon. The conclusions are as follows. (1) Adsorption reduction does exist in the shale sample. The adsorption process of methane in the shale sample can be divided into the strong adsorption stage, approximate saturation stage, and adsorption reduction stage. (2) Shale adsorbing methane has a positive effect on the experimental adsorption amount. Comparatively, free space volume, excess adsorption amount, and blank test have negative effects. Adsorption reduction is the result of combined influence of positive and negative effects above. (3) At the first two stages of methane adsorption, the positive effect is greater than the negative effect, resulting in the hidden of adsorption reduction, and the experimental adsorption amount increases with the growth of experimental pressure. While at the adsorption reduction stage, the former effect is smaller than the latter, and their difference increases as the experimental pressure increases. It leads to the occurrence of adsorption reduction, and the phenomenon becomes increasingly obvious. (4) FSVR has the strongest impact on the weakening of adsorption reduction, followed by EAAC and BTC. The adsorption reduction in shale reservoir can be corrected effectively by BTC and EAAC.