Structure of kerogen revealed
The dark-colored hydrocarbon solid known as kerogen gives rise to the fuels that power many of our daily activities: Petroleum is the source of gasoline and diesel fuels, and natural gas is used for cooking, heating, and increasingly for producing electricity. And yet, kerogen’s basic internal structure has remained poorly understood — until now. A new analysis, by a joint team of researchers at MIT, the French government research organization CNRS, and elsewhere, has revealed kerogen’s internal structure, in detail down to the atomic level. Their results were just published in the journal Nature Materials in a paper by MIT postdoc Colin Bousige, visiting scientist Benoit Coasne, senior research scientist Roland J.-M. Pellenq, professor Franz-Josef Ulm, and colleagues at MIT, CNRS, and other institutions. The findings reveal important details about how gas and oil move through pores in formations deep underground, making it possible to estimate the amount of recoverable reserves more accurately and potentially...