Pore Fractal Characteristics of Different Macro-Coal Components and Influence on Adsorption/Desorption: A Case Study in the Huanglong Jurassic Coalfield

The heterogeneity of pore structure in coal reservoir is extremely complex. In this paper, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and liquid nitrogen adsorption (LNA) were used to describe pore characteristics of macro-coal components, and the fractal characteristics of pores and their relationship with adsorption and desorption were discussed. The findings revealed that there were obvious differences in pore characteristics of different macro-coal components at different pore sizes. The total pore volume of vitrain and durain was equivalent, and the total specific surface area was larger than durain, indicating that the micropores in vitrain were more developed, while the macropores in durain were more developed, indicating that the specific surface area was smaller. Fractal results indicated that the pore structure of coal was more complex with the increase of pore diameter. The Da1 and Da2 of vitrain and durain were affected by larger specific surface area and pore volume. The Ds of vitrain increased first and then decreased with the content of vitrinite, while that of durain was the opposite. The relationship between the adsorption capacity of vitrain and fractal dimension Da1 was binomial distribution, and it was positively correlated with Da2. The adsorption capacity of durain samples increased first and then decreased with Da1. With the increase of fractal dimension Ds, the theoretical desorption rate and recovery rate of durain had a downward trend, that is, the more complex the pore structure, the poor the desorption efficiency.