Micro-occurrence characteristics and charging mechanism in continental shale oil from Lucaogou Formation in the Jimsar Sag, Junggar Basin, NW China.

The micro-occurrence characterization of shale oil is a key geological issue that restricts the effective development of continental shale oil in China. In order to make up for the lack of research in this area, this paper carries out a series of experiments on the shale oil of the Lucaogou Formation using a multi-step extraction method, with the aim of exploring the micro-occurrence types and mechanisms of shale oil in the Lucaogou Formation, as well as exploring its direct connection with production and development. In this paper, shale oil in the reservoir is divided into two categories: free oil and residual oil. The polar substances and OSN compounds are the key factors determining the occurrence state of shale oil. Abundant polar substances and OSN compounds can preferentially react with mineral surfaces (including coordination, complexation, ionic exchange, and so on) to form a stable adsorption layer, making it difficult to extract residual oil in actual exploitation. Free oil is mainly composed of aliphatic hydrocarbons, and its adsorption capacity is related to the length of the carbon chain, i.e. long carbon chain, strong adsorption capacity, and poor movability. Free oil is widely stored in pores and cracks, and that with high mobility can be the most easily extracted, making it the main target at present exploitation. In the current state of drilling and fracturing technology, research should prioritize understanding the adsorption and desorption mechanisms of crude oil, particularly residual oil. This will help optimize exploitation programs, such as carbon dioxide fracturing and displacement, to enhance shale oil production.

A semi-analytical solution to organic contaminants transport through composite liners considering a single crack in CCL.

Compacted clay liners (CCLs) are extensively used as engineering barriers for groundwater and soil pollution. The existence of cracks/fractures in CCL caused by thermally induced shrinkage is reported to importantly damage the performance of the CCL. An analytical model is developed to study the effects of the cracks/fractures on the migration of organic contaminants through a composite liner system. Laplace transformation and Laplace inversion using the Stehfest method are adopted to derive the analytical solution, which is validated by the experimental data. The existence of crack shows a significant impact on the breakthrough curve and bottom flux of organic contaminants. Increasing the crack width from 1 to 25 mm results in an enhancement of contaminant bottom concentration by a factor of 280. Increasing the adsorption factor and degradation rate of contaminants can effectively improve the performance of the composite liner with cracks. The effects of degradation of contaminants on the breakthrough curve are found to be more significant for the case with a larger retardation factor. This may be due to the fact that increasing the retardation factor can significantly slow down the transport of contaminants, which may indirectly create a longer period for the degradation of contaminants.

Comparative Study on the Elucidation of Sedimentary Phosphorus Species Using Two Methods, the SMT and SEDEX Methods.

Sedimentary phosphorus (P) forms are important representatives of P sources and their bioavailability as well as the potential of sediments to release P in water. In this study, surface sediments along a transect of the Changjiang Estuary and two transects along the Andong salt marsh in the southwest of Hangzhou Bay were subjected to the elucidation of sedimentary P species using the standards, measurements, and testing (SMT) and sequential extraction (SEDEX) methods. The results showed that the mean sedimentary P forms elucidated by the SMT method were as follows: organic P (OP; ∼11-14 mg/kg; ∼30-45% of total P; TP) > apatite P (∼5-15 mg/kg; ∼21-36% TP) > Fe/Al-P (∼8-14 mg/kg; ∼31-34% TP), with inorganic P (IP) composing 54-70% of TP. The mean sedimentary P forms elucidated by the SEDEX method were as follows: authigenic P (∼54-68 mg/kg; ∼41-46% TP) > extractable P (Ex-P; ∼36-53 mg/kg; ∼28-34%) > Fe-P (∼21-27 mg/kg; ∼13-19%) > OP (∼8.7-13 mg/kg; ∼5-8%) > detrital P (De-P; ∼2 mg/kg; ∼1-2% TP), with IP composed of ∼91-94% TP. These results showed that the SEDEX method elucidated higher concentrations of sedimentary P forms as well as the TP from these coastal sediments although the SMT method had the advantage of being more economic and faster. The results of both the SMT and SEDEX methods showed that the Andong salt marsh and Changjiang Estuary sediments had much bioavailable P. The mean percentages of bioavailable P from the SMT and SEDEX methods were ∼64-74% and 52-56% of TP, respectively, indicating that these sediments were prone to release P to the coastal areas.

An analytical solution to contaminant diffusion in semi-infinite clayey soils with piecewise linear adsorption.

The adsorption of contaminants onto soil particles typically is nonlinear if the contaminant concentration is sufficiently high. A simplified piecewise linear adsorption isotherm consistent with experimental results is proposed as an approximation for nonlinear adsorption behavior. This approximation allows for the use of analytical solution to model solute diffusion of contaminants that exhibit nonlinear adsorption. A moving boundary is introduced to represent significant changes in the retardation factor of clay with an increase in solute concentration. The proposed analytical solutions were validated using experimental data presented in the literature. There is negligible difference between the results obtained by the proposed analytical solution and those obtained by the linear model when C(m)/C(0) reached 0.5. The results also show that the model based on linear adsorption using the initial secant of the Freundlich isotherm leads to significantly lower estimated breakthrough time for the contaminant of interest than that obtained using the proposed model. The earlier breakthrough is due to an under-estimation of the amount of adsorption. The proposed method is relatively simple to apply and can be used for evaluating experimental results and verifying more complex numerical models.

[Simultaneous remediation of Cr (VI) and p-NCB by nanosacle iron].

Nanoscale Fe and Ni/Fe, which were prepared by chemical deposition, were utilized as catalyst for remediation of Cr(VI) and pNCB in contaminated water. The interactions between Cr( VI) and p-NCB in contaminated water during the simultaneous remediation process were analyzed. It is demonstrated from the experiment that p-NCB can be degradated into p-CAN by nanoscale iron, but cannot exhibit the effect of dechlorination, and that there is a competitive relationship between Cr( VI) and p-NCB in the remediation process. The nanoscale Nil Fe bimetals could be applied in simultaneous remediation of p-NCB with Cr( VI) and give rise to a good remediation efficiency, where the products are only Cr(III) and p-CAN without any intermediate products. It was found that the conditions of higher Ni(II) concentration can promote the degradation rate of p-NCB. The optimum Ni/Fe ratio is 1:50. Whereas, the higher concentrations of Cr(VI) and p-NCB will lead to the lower degradation rate. Under the condition that concentration of Cr (VI) was 20 mg/L, the corresponding maximum dechlorination of p-NCB was 43.0%; under the condition that concentration of p-NCB was 40 mg/L, the corresponding maximum removal efficiency of Cr(VI) was 71.4%.

[Water environmental simulation of main contaminations in the Qiantang River at low water period].

Technical framework for water environment simulation of contaminations is established based on visualization and a spatial environmental model is built. The main two contaminations, namely NH: -N and TP, are simulated on the platform of MapInfo and Delft3D in the Qiantang River at the low water period, to analyze its space-time diversity. For NH4+ -N, the measured values are 0.19 mg/L and 0.66 mg/L larger than simulated values at the Lanjiang River mouth and the Yanlingwu, 0.16 mg/L, 0.54 mg/L and 0.49 mg/L smaller at the Zhaixi, the Yushan and the Yuanpu. For TP, the measured values are 0.13 mg/L and 0.14 mg/L higher than simulated values at the Meicheng Water facility and Yanlingwu. However, the measure values are slightly lower than simulated ones at Zhaixi, Yushan, Puyang River mouth and Yuanpu, the trend of which accords with actual situation. The results indicate that the contaminations of the Qiantang Reach mostly come from the Lanjiang River, the Fuchun River and the Puyang River on the upstream, among which the Lanjiang River and the Puyang River have a very high concentration of polluted materials, which means bad water quality, and influence the water downstream. The Lanjiang River becomes the chief contaminative source in the Fuchun River. When the discharge from the Xin'an River Dam is small, the recirculation region may be formed and makes part of the Xin'an Reach contaminated. Otherwise, when the discharge is large, the water quality in the Fuchun River is apparently improved. And the Puyang River, which brings the contaminations from the upstream, along with the polluted water let into it from the industries along the reach, has significant impacts on the water quality in Qiantang Reach.

Structure relationship of nitrochlorobenzene catalytic degradation process in water over palladium-iron bimetallic catalyst.

Two isomers of nitrochlorobenzene (o-, and p-NCB) were treated by a Pd/Fe catalyst in aqueous solutions through catalytic amination and dechlorination. Nitrochlorobenzenes are rapidly converted to form chloroanilines (CAN) first through an amination process, and then rapidly dechlorinated to become aniline (AN) and Cl(-), without the involvement of any other intermediate reaction products. The amination and dechlorination reaction are believed to take place predominantly on the surface site of the Pd/Fe catalysts. The dechlorination rate of the reductive degradation of the two isomers of nitrochlorobenzene (o-, and p-NCB) in the presence of Pd/Fe as a catalyst was measured experimentally. In all cases, the reaction rate constants were found to increase with the decrease in the Gibbs free energy (correlation with the activation energy) of NCBs formation; the activation energy of each dechlorination reaction was measured to be 95.83 and 77.05 kJ/mol, respectively for o- and p-NCB. The results demonstrated that p-NCBs were reduced more easily than o-NCBs.

Removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution by iron nanoparticles.

Groundwater remediation by nanoparticles has received increasing interest in recent years. This report presents a thorough evaluation of hexavalent chromium removal in aqueous solutions using iron (Fe(0)) nanoparticles. Cr(VI) is a major pollutant of groundwater. Zero-valent iron, an important natural reductant of Cr(VI), is an option in the remediation of contaminated sites, transforming Cr(VI) to essentially nontoxic Cr(III). At a dose of 0.4 g/L, 100% of Cr(VI) (20 mg/L) was degraded. The Cr(VI) removal efficiency decreased significantly with increasing initial pH. Different Fe(0) type was compared in the same conditions. The reactivity was in the order starch-stabilized Fe(0) nanoparticles>Fe(0) nanoparticles>Fe(0) powder>Fe(0) filings. Electrochemical analysis of the reaction process led to the conclusion that Cr(OH)(3) should be the final product of Cr(VI). Iron nanoparticles are good choice for the remediation of heavy metals in groundwater.