Selection Effect of Liquid Nitrogen Freeze-Thaw Cycles on Full Pore Size Distribution of Different Rank Coals

In China, the capacity to produce coalbed methane and extract underground gas is restricted by the prevalence of low-permeability coal seams. Liquid nitrogen fracturing is a new low temperature-high-pressure anhydrous fracturing technology that uses low temperature and high frost heave forces to increase coal permeability. To better understand the liquid nitrogen fracturing effect on coal, we conduct the liquid nitrogen freeze-thaw cycle (LNCFT) experiments on different rank coals from Qinghai, Shanxi, and Shaanxi provinces. We combined the low-pressure nitrogen and carbon dioxide adsorption experiment with the non-local density functional theory model and mercury injection porosimetry with compressibility corrections to examine the full pore size distributions of untreated and water-saturated samples before and after LNCFT. The results found that LNCFT can effectively increase the pore volume (PV) and specific surface area of the water-saturated coal sample. Compared with the raw coal, the increased ratio of the full pore size PV is 70.41-100.17%. However, the scale-selective transformation effect on pores during liquid nitrogen fracturing is noticeable. Under the same conditions, LNCFT can significantly increase the pore volume of micropores (>2 nm) and macropores (>50 nm), and the increase ratios are 24.40-44.16 and 103.55-327.93%, respectively. The PV of mesopores (2-50 nm) shows a slightly increasing trend with the increase in metamorphic degree, and the increase ratio is between 8.7 and 56%. Comparing the full pore size distribution curves before and after LNCFT, it is found that the alteration of high-volatile bituminous coal (BLT coal) and anthracite (SH coal) has more significance in the range of less than 2 and 50-20,000 nm, while middle-volatile bituminous coal (YJL coal) varies between 50 and 2000 nm. Meanwhile, the ratio of micropore and mesopore PV to the total decreased gradually before and after LNCFT, while the proportion of macropores increased, indicating that small-scale pores would intersect and connect to form larger-scale pores during the fracturing. The combined effects of temperature gradient, water-ice phase transition, and heat transmission rate are the key factors that determine the impact of LNCFT on pore size distribution. Our results provide new information for enhancing the permeability of low-permeability coal seams of different ranks.