energies
Article
An Extensive Study on Desorption Models Generated Based on
Langmuir and Knudsen Diffusion
Hamda Alkuwaiti * , Hadi Belhaj , Mohammed Aldhuhoori, Bisweswar Ghosh and Ryan Fernandes
Citation: Alkuwaiti, H.; Belhaj, H.;
Aldhuhoori, M.; Ghosh, B.;
Fernandes, R. An Extensive Study on
Desorption Models Generated Based
on Langmuir and Knudsen Diffusion.
Energies 2021, 14, 6435. https://
doi.org/10.3390/en14196435
Academic Editor: Dameng Liu
Received: 29 August 2021
Accepted: 25 September 2021
Published: 8 October 2021
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4.0/).
Department of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology,
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; hadi.belhaj@ku.ac.ae (H.B.); 100051985@ku.ac.ae (M.A.);
bisweswar.ghosh@ku.ac.ae (B.G.); ryan.fernandes@ku.ac.ae (R.F.)
* Correspondence: 100052986@ku.ac.ae
Abstract: Although gas desorption is a known phenomenon, modeling fluid flow in tight gas
reservoirs often ignores the governing desorption effect, assuming that viscous transport is the
predominant controller, resulting in an erroneous prediction of mass transport and fluid flow cal-
culations. Thus, developing a new model accommodating all the major contributing forces in such
a medium is essential. This work introduces a new comprehensive flow model suitable for tight
unconventional reservoirs, including viscous, inertia, diffusion, and sorption forces, to account for
fluid transport. Based on Langmuir law and Knudsen diffusion effect, three models were generated
and compared with different known models using synthetic data. The model was solved and ana-
lyzed for different scenario cases, and parametric studies were conducted to evaluate the desorption
effect on different reservoir types using MATLAB. Results show that the contribution of the sorption
mechanism to the flow increases with the reducing permeability of the medium and lower viscosity
of the flowing fluid and an additional pressure drop up to 10 psi was quantified.
Keywords: unconventional reservoirs; desorption; modeling; fluid flow
1. Introduction
Unconventional reservoirs embody the upcoming revolution in the oil and gas in-
dustry due to the rapid growth of world energy demand anticipated by the United States
Energy Information Association Outlook [1] and the continuous draining of the current
conventional hydrocarbon resources. The increase in demand has led to an aggressive
investigation of unconventional accumulations that were once shelved due to production
complexities to be considered for exploring opportunities. Unconventional reservoirs are
reservoirs with divergent geological characteristics [2], inconstant geochemical characteris-
tics, intricate petrophysical properties, eccentricities in fluid phase behavior, and various
governing flow mechanisms/forces [3]. Unconventional reservoirs include various types
of reservoirs including gas hydrates, tight gas and oil, heavy oil, and shale oil and gas.
In their natural form, gas hydrates consist of water molecules (ice molecules) that act
as hosts [4]. In contrast, guest molecules are methane, propane, isobutene, and ethane,
among other gases that are chemically bonded with van der Waals forces in low degrees of
temperature and, at the same time, under high pressure. Natural hydrate gas is primarily
white and has the same appearance as ice. Natural hydrates are commonly known to have
methane, which can burn, thus having the name “fire ice”. Natural gas hydrates have long
been deemed a nuisance for blocking transmission pipes, endangering the foundations of
deep-water platforms and pipelines, and risking more disruption to the output of deep-
water oil and gas [5], maybe a significant possible source of energy in the future. In the
permafrost and beneath the ocean floor, huge deposits of natural gas hydrates are widely
dispersed [6].
Geologically, shale is the source rock where oil was originated and trapped with
part migration to the reservoir rock where migration path was available. Shale oil is
Energies 2021, 14, 6435. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196435 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies