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Modification of Microstructural and Fluid Migration of Bituminous Coal by Microwave–LN2 Freeze–Thaw Cycles: Implication for Efficient Recovery of Coalbed Methane

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Abstract

To improve the efficiency of coalbed methane and recoverability of reservoirs, enhanced fracturing technology is usually required to improve the low porosity and permeability status of coal reservoirs. As a feasible method for strengthening permeability, microwave–LN2 freeze–thaw (MLFT) cycles modify the microscopic pore structure of coal through the coupled effect of temperature stress changes, phase change expansion, and fatigue damage. 1H nuclear magnetic resonance combined with fractal dimension theory was used to characterize quantitatively the pore system and geometric features of coal. The geometric fractal model constructed using the T2 spectrum indicates that the fractal dimensions Dp and De have high fitting accuracy, demonstrating that percolation and effective pores exhibit good fractal characteristics. Dp and De are correlated negatively and positively, respectively, with the cyclic parameters. The relevance analysis shows that the NMR fractal method can reflect the pore–fracture heterogeneity of coal, which has a significant effect on the percentage of fluid migration space. This study reveals that MLFT cycles have significant enhancement effects on promoting the extension of multi-type pores structures within the coal matrix, as well as the connectivity and permeability of cracks.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52274195, 52334007, 52374200), the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (2022RC1178), and Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2022JJ20024).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resource, Environment and Safety Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, **angtan, 411201, Hunan, China

    He Li, ** Wu & Jieyan Cao

  2. PetroChina Coalbed Methane Company Limited, Bei**g, 100028, China

    Meng Liu

  3. School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Baiquan Lin & Wei Yang

  4. College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, Fujian, China

    Yidu Hong

  5. College of Quality and Safety Engineering, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Chang Guo

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  1. He Li
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  4. Baiquan Lin
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  5. Wei Yang
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Correspondence to He Li or Meng Liu.

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Li, H., Wu, X., Liu, M. et al. Modification of Microstructural and Fluid Migration of Bituminous Coal by Microwave–LN2 Freeze–Thaw Cycles: Implication for Efficient Recovery of Coalbed Methane. Nat Resour Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-024-10348-y

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