Using a pore network model to represent porous media we investigate adsorption-desorption processes over the entire range of the relative pressure, highlighting in particular capillary condensation. The model incorporates recent advances from density functional theory for adsorption-desorption in narrow pores (of order as low as 1 nm), which improve upon the traditional multi-layer adsorption and Kelvin's equation for phase change and provide for the dependence of the critical pore size on temperature. The limited accessibility of the pore network gives rise to hysteresis in the adsorption-desorption cycle. This is due to the blocking of larger pores, where adsorbed liquid is allowed to but cannot desorb, by smaller pores containing liquid that may not desorb. By allowing for the existence of supercritical liquid in pores in the nm range, it is found that the hysteresis area increases with an increase in temperature, in agreement with experiments of water adsorptiondesorption in rock samples from The Geysers. It is also found that the hysteresis increases if the porous medium is represented as a fractured (dual porosity) system. The paper finds applications to general adsorption-desorption problems but it is illustrated here for geothermal applications in The Geysers.

Press the Back button in your browser, or search again.

Copyright 1995, Stanford Geothermal Program: Readers who download papers from this site should honor the copyright of the original authors and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the original publisher.