Reservoir properties and genesis of tight sandstones—A case study from the Gaotaizi oil layer in the Qijia area, Songliao basin

The primary focus of oil and gas exploration for tight sandstone reservoirs is on a quantitative characterization of reservoir properties. This paper uses the tight sandstone reservoir developed in the Gaotaizi oil layer in the Qijia area of the Songliao Basin as an example. The petrology, physical properties, pore–throat characteristics, and the genesis of the densification of the oil-bearing sandstones are elucidated using casting thin-sections, scanning electron microscopy, 3D computerized tomography (CT), and petrophysical experimental techniques. The results show that the Gaotaizi oil layer is mainly composed of clastic rocks and contains small amounts of shell limestone. The clastic rocks are mainly lithic feldspar sandstone and feldspar lithic sandstone, while residual intergranular pores, intergranular dissolved pores, intragranular dissolved pores, intragranular pores and intercrystalline pores constitute the different pore types. Mercury intrusion and 3D computerized tomography analysis showed that micro-nano pores account for 53% of the total pores present. The pore–throat coordination number is distributed between 1 and 4, with an average of 1.8. The pores and throats in the Gaotaizi reservoir have poor connectivity. The porosity distribution of the Gaotaizi oil layer is 1.4%–22.5%, with an average of 9.5%, while the permeability distribution ranges from 0.01 to 27.10 mD, with an average of 0.41 mD. It is an ultra-low porosity and ultra-low permeability tight reservoir. The Gaotaizi oil layer is divided into three types of reservoirs through a systematic study of its pore developmental characteristics. Diagenetic processes like compaction and cementation result in a reduction in porosity and permeability. Compaction, calcite and siliceous cementation, and illite packing are primarily responsible for reservoir densification

The Immediate Hotspot of Microbial Nitrogen Cycling in an Oil-Seed Rape (Brassica campestris L.) Soil System Is the Bulk Soil Rather Than the Rhizosphere after Biofertilization

Biofertilizers are substances that promote plant growth through the efficacy of living microorganisms. The functional microbes comprising biofertilizers are effective mediators in plant-soil systems in the regulation of nitrogen cycling, especially in nitrification repression. However, the deterministic or stochastic distribution of the functional hotspot where microbes are active immediately after biofertilization is rarely investigated. Here, pot experiments with oil-seed rape (Brassica campestris L.) were conducted with various chemical and biological fertilizers in order to reveal the distribution of the hotspot after each fertilization. A stimulated dynamic of the nitrogen cycling-related genes in the bulk soil inferred that the bulk soil was likely to be the hotspot where the inoculated bacterial fertilizers dominated the nitrogen cycle. Furthermore, a network analysis showed that bulk soil microbial communities were more cooperative than those in the rhizosphere after biofertilization, suggesting that the microbiome of the bulk soils were more efficient for nutrient cycling. In addition, the relatively abundant ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea present in the networks of bulk soil microbial communities further indicated that the bulk soil was the plausible hotspot after the application of the biofertilizers. Therefore, our research provides a new insight into the explicit practice of plant fertilization and agricultural management, which may improve the implementational efficiency of biofertilization

The Effect of AlN Content on the Properties of Al₂O₃-AlN Composite Ceramics Fabricated by Digital Light Processing

In this work, Al2O3-AlN composite ceramics with high bending strength and thermal conductivity were fabricated by Digital Light Processing (DLP). The influence of AlN content on the rheological and cure behavior of Al2O3-AlN suspensions, as well as the microstructure, thermal conductivity, and bending strength of Al2O3-AlN ceramics, were systematically investigated. The result shows that the viscosity and cure ability of the suspensions were decreased with the increase of AlN content, which are beneficial to the spreading and printing accuracy of the suspensions. Besides, the bending strength of ceramics can be improved due to the residual stress by the introduction of AlN. Approaches were employed to minimize the formation of AlON in Al2O3-AlN ceramics by optimizing the amount of AlN and the sintering temperature. The thermal conductivity and bending strength of Al2O3-AlN ceramics were 31.72 ± 0.45 W/(m·K) and 572.73 ± 59.40 MPa, respectively, which are much higher than those of Al2O3 ceramics fabricated under the same condition. Finally, complex-shaped Al2O3-AlN ceramics components have been successfully fabricated by DLP, which may provide an opportunity to broaden the application of Al2O3-AlN composite ceramics in heat dissipation components

Effects of Mo and Vc on the microstructure and properties of nano-cemented carbides

In this study, four unique groups of nano-cemented carbides with 8 wt.% Co and trace amount of Mo and VC have been successfully synthesized. The effect of Mo and VC has been investigated comprehensively on both the microstructure and mechanical behavior of nano-cemented carbide. The results show that Mo significantly increases hardness but decreases the fracture toughnesses and VC slightly increases hardness and strongly increases fracture toughness of nano-cemented carbide. It is found that the optimum Mo and VC contents are both 0.5 wt.%. The average WC grain size is about 370 nm. The hardness is about 2350 HV30 and the fracture toughness is about 11.2 MPam-1/2

Grinding performance of micro-texured grinding wheel on different ceramic materials

The grinding performance of micro-textured grinding wheel with arrayed micro-hole and common grinding wheel are compared through experiments on alumina, aluminum nitride, zirconia and silicon nitride ceramic materials. The grinding force, the specific grinding energy, the surface roughness and the surface chipping are analyzed. In comparison with common grinding wheel, micro-textured grinding wheel improves the grinding force and the specific grinding energy in grinding of alumina, aluminum nitride and zirconia ceramics, reduces the surface roughness of these ceramics, but has a little effect on the grinding force and the surface roughness of silicon nitride ceramics. Silicon nitride has higher grinding force and specific grinding energy than other ceramic materials do. The surface characteristics of alumina and aluminum nitride mainly imply brittle removal mode, while a ductile removal mode is characterized on the surface of zirconia and silicon nitride has both plastic and brittle removal characteristics. The surface chipping thickness processed by the micro-textured grinding wheel is larger than that of the common grinding wheel, while the surface chipping thickness of both alumina and aluminum nitride ceramics is larger than those of zirconia and silicon nitride ceramics

Vat photopolymerization-based 3D printing of complex-shaped and high-performance Al2O3 ceramic tool with chip-breaking grooves: Cutting performance and wear mechanism

ABSTRACTDue to the processing of alumina ceramic cutting tools with complex shapes using traditional methods is difficult and time-consuming, vat-photopolymerization-based 3D printing was adopted to fabricate Al2O3 ceramic cutting tools with grooves for the first time. Subsequently, cutting performance evaluation and wear mechanism analysis were conducted. The relative density, Vickers hardness, and bending strength of the alumina cutting tools were determined. The effects of the cutting speed, feed rate, and cutting depth on the cutting performance and wear mechanism of the cutting tools were systematically investigated. In addition, two commercial cutting tools, namely cemented carbide and ceramic tools without grooves, were used for comparison. The cutting speed has the highest influence on the cutting performance, whereas the cutting depth has the least influence. The cutting performance of the prepared alumina cutting inserts with chip breaker grooves superior to that those without chip-breaking grooves and that of the cemented carbide tools. The wear mechanisms of the prepared alumina cutting tools and commercial tools were determined to be abrasive and adhesive wear, and those of the cemented carbide tools were adhesive wear and breakage. This work opens a new avenue for the future preparation of high-performance and complex-shaped ceramic cutting tools

Additive manufacturing of flexible polymer-derived ceramic matrix composites

It remains challenging to broaden the application fields of ceramics, largely because the hardness and brittleness of ceramics mean that they cannot undergo shape reconfiguration. In this study, we developed an ultraviolet light-curable preceramic polymer slurry, and this slurry was used for digital light processing printing of flexible green parts in designed shapes. These parts were subsequently transformed into complex structures by an assisted secondary molding strategy that enabled the morphology of their green and pyrolyzed forms to be well controlled. The collapse of bulk pyrolyzed parts was avoided by impregnating their precursors with silicon nitride (Si3N4) particles. The effects of different proportions of Si3N4 on the weight loss, shrinkage, density, porosity, and mechanical properties of the pyrolyzed composites were investigated, and the bending strength and Vickers hardness of the composites with 10 wt.% Si3N4 were found to be 130.61 ± 16.01 MPa and 6.43 ± 0.12 GPa, respectively

Myriophyllum aquaticum Constructed Wetland Effectively Removes Nitrogen in Swine Wastewater

Removal of nitrogen (N) is a critical aspect in the functioning of constructed wetlands (CWs), and the N treatment in CWs depends largely on the presence and activity of macrophytes and microorganisms. However, the effects of plants on microorganisms responsible for N removal are poorly understood. In this study, a three-stage surface flow CW was constructed in a pilot-scale within monospecies stands of Myriophyllum aquaticum to treat swine wastewater. Steady-state conditions were achieved throughout the 600-day operating period, and a high (98.3%) average ammonia removal efficiency under a N loading rate of 9 kg ha-1 d-1 was observed. To determine whether this high efficiency was associated with the performance of active microbes, the abundance, structure, and interactions of microbial community were compared in the unvegetated and vegetated samples. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reactions showed the abundances of nitrifying genes (archaeal and bacterial amoA) and denitrifying genes (nirS, nirK, and nosZ) were increased significantly by M. aquaticum in the sediments, and the strongest effects were observed for the archaeal amoA (218-fold) and nirS genes (4620-fold). High-throughput sequencing of microbial 16S rRNA gene amplicons showed that M. aquaticum greatly changed the microbial community, and ammonium oxidizers (Nitrosospira and Nitrososphaera), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrospira), and abundant denitrifiers including Rhodoplanes, Bradyrhizobium, and Hyphomicrobium, were enriched significantly in the sediments. The results of a canonical correspondence analysis and Mantle tests indicated that M. aquaticum may shift the sediment microbial community by changing the sediment chemical properties. The enriched nitrifiers and denitrifiers were distributed widely in the vegetated sediments, showing positive ecological associations among themselves and other bacteria based on phylogenetic molecular ecological networks

Diagenesis of tight sandstone and its influence on reservoir properties: A case study of Fuyu reservoirs in Songliao Basin, China

Diagenesis is the primary cause of the densification of the Fuyu reservoir in Sanzhao sag, Songliao Basin. In this paper, the types of diagenesis, the influence of diagenesis on reservoir physical properties and the formation reasons of tight reservoir in Fuyu oil layer were studied by means of ordinary thin sections, casting thin sections, cathodoluminescence and scanning electron microscope. Results show that the diagenesis of the Fuyu reservoir in Sanzhao sag mainly includes compaction, cementation, metasomatism, and dissolution. Compaction and cementation are the main reasons for the compactness of the Fuyu reservoir in Sanzhao sag. The compactness causes also vary in different parts of the Fuyu reservoir. At the bottom of the Fuyu oil layer, the porosity reduction rate of early calcite cementation is 77%, and that of compaction is 9.23%. Cementation is the primary cause of reservoir compactness, and compaction is the secondary factor. In the middle and upper sections of the Fuyu reservoir, the porosity reduction rate of compaction is 50%, and that of cementation is 32.31%. Compaction is the main reason causing reservoir compactness, and cementation is the secondary factor. This work extensively analyzes the diagenesis characteristics of the Fuyu reservoir and its influence on the reservoir physical properties, providing a scientific basis for the study of the reservoir physical properties and the prediction of high-quality reservoirs