LAUSR

In order to study the coupled effect of the temperature and pressure on pyrolysis characteristics and pore and fracture structures of oil shale, a total of 25 groups of pyrolytic reaction experiments have been conducted on 14 mm long and 7 mm in diameter cylindrical oil shale specimens under different temperature and pressure conditions ranging from 20 to 600 °C and 0.1–15 MPa. Further, both X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) have been used to comprehensively investigate the network structure, interconnectivity, and evolution of pore and fractures. The results show that the temperature significantly affects the pyrolysis characteristics of oil shale. With rising temperature, both the mass loss and the porosity increase gradually, the number and the maximum aperture of fractures also increase, and the pyrolytic degree intensifies progressively. The increase is most significant from 300 to 500 °C. The maximum mass loss ratio is 20.84%, the largest porosity is 13.52 ...