Nanopore Structure Analysis of Geological and Catalytic Materials

Date
2013-09-13
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Abstract
The study of nanoporous materials is important due to their many applications, including gas sorption/storage and catalysis. In this thesis, two classes of materials have been studied: a hydrocracking catalyst (nickel (Ni)-containing zeolite, Ni/H-ZSM), prepared using two different methods, and naturally-occurring tight gas/shale core plugs from several North American reservoirs. The Ni/H-ZSM catalyst was used for the hydrocracking of toluene, while the tight gas/shale samples are from reservoirs with enormous potential for natural gas production. Because the storage and flow properties of both of these materials relate primarily to pores at the nanometer scale, these topics are connected through the multiplicity of powerful characterization techniques that have been employed, including high resolution imaging, gas sorption, and computational methods (e.g., DFT). It has been found that the two methods of Ni incorporation of the Ni/H-ZSM samples, which are catalytically similar, differ in the Ni nanoparticle size and distribution within the pores. For the tight-gas/shale reservoir samples, characteristic pore shapes and distributions have been identified, and comparisons between routine and non-routine characterizing methods were performed. Elemental compositions with depth in powdered samples were explored and their implications for distribution of organic and inorganic matter explored.
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Geology
Citation
Aquino Carvelli, S. D. (2013). Nanopore Structure Analysis of Geological and Catalytic Materials (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27058