• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.36-44
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• 2008

Natural gas in tight reservoirs, one of unconventional hydrocarbon resources, has become a significant exploration and exploitation targets. Tight gas reservoirs are the gas-bearing rocks that commonly have a permeability of less than 0.1 millidarcy (mD). Tight gas reservoirs are characterized by extensive and deep locations as well as abnormal pressure such as over- or under-pressure. The tight gas reservoirs are independent of structural or stratigraphic traps, whereas conventional gases normally occur at these traps. Tight gas reservoirs can be productive when stimulated by hydraulic fracturing. Better production areas within the tight reservoir beds are referred to as sweet spots that are commonly caused by natural fractures, which should be understood and identified to enhance the recovery of the gas from tight reservoirs. The exploration and production techniques allow the commercial production of tight gas, one of environmentally friendly resources. Slant and horizontal wells have best production when they intersect the fractures. Gas production from the tight reservoirs has rapidly grown in U.S. and Canada. Indeed, the U.S. gas production of tight sandstones increases from 11.1% in 1990 to 24.1% in 2005. The presence of tight gas reservoirs has been suggested on the Korean offshore block 6-1. Paradigm shift from conventional to unconventional tight reservoir is required to develop the tight gas from the block.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.209-218
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• 2021

Studies of pore structure in shale gas reservoirs are essential to increase recovery rates, which is in the spotlight concerning unconventional resources. In this study, the distribution of pores in shale gas reservoir sample were observed using Scanning Electron Microscope Particle Analysis (SELPA), which is appropriate to analyze the distribution of particle or shape for sample in large area. A sample from the A-068 borehole drilled in the Liard Basin was analyzed; calcite is the main mineral. The pore size ranges from tens of nanometers to hundreds of micrometers and the contribution of each pore size to overall sample porosity was determined using SELPA. The distribution of pores was determined by observing the surface in the same area at magnifications of ×1000, ×3000 and ×5000. Pores less than 100 nm were observed at high magnifications and confirm that small-scale pore distribution can be analyzed and identified rapidly using SELPA. The method introduced in this study will be useful to understand pore structures in unconventional reservoirs.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.419-426
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• 2020

Understanding the pore structure including pore shape and connectivity in unconventional reservoirs is essential to increase the recovery rate of unconventional energy resources such as shale gas and oil. In this study, we found analysis condition to probe the nanoscale pore structure in shale reservoirs using Focused Ion Beam (FIB) and Ion Milling System (IMS). A-068 core samples from Liard Basin are used to probe the pore structure in shale reservoirs. The pore structure is analyzed with different pretreatment methods and analysis condition because each sample has different characteristics. The results show that surface milling by FIB is effective to obtain pore images of several micrometers local area while milling a large-area by IMS is efficient to observe various pore structure in a short time. Especially, it was confirmed that the pore structure of rocks with high content of carbonate minerals and high strength can be observed with milling by IMS. In this study, the analysis condition and process for observing the pore structure in the shale reservoirs is established. Further studies are needed to perform for probing the effect of pore size and shape on the enhancement of shale gas recovery.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.412-419
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• 2012

Increasing demand for natural gas and higher natural gas prices in the recent decades have led many people to pursue unconventional methods of natural gas production. POSCO-Gwangyang synthetic natural gas (SNG) project was launched in 2010. As the market price of natural gas goes up, the increase of its price gets more sensitive due to the high cost of transportation and liquefaction. This project can make the SNG economically viable. In parallel with this project, KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) joined in launching the SNG Quality Standard Bureau along with KOGAS (Korea Gas Corporation), POSCO and so on. KEPCO Research Institute is in charge of SNG fueled gas turbine combustion test. In this research, several combustion tests were conducted to find out the effect of hydrogen contents in SNG on gas turbine combustion. The hydrogen in synthetic natural gas did not affect on gas turbine combustion characteristics which are turbine inlet temperature including pattern factor and emission performance. However, flame stable region in ${\Phi}$-Air flow rate map was shifted to the lean condition due to autocatalytic effect of hydrogen.

• 한국석유지질학회:학술대회논문집
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• autumn
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• pp.28-46
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• 2001

Natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases and impurities such as nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide and a clean energy producing no pollution materials for combustion. Currently, the demand of the natural gas is rapidly increasing due to worldwide environmental problems. According to Hubbert's study in the past, the natural gas was predicted as rapidly depleted resources, and then the results led to high gas price and limitation of usage during 1980s. Afterward, the study of natural gas resources based on geology identified the additional natural gas resources that were not considered in Hubbert's study. They are unconventional gas, additional resources in the existed reservoirs, and natural gas in deep subsurface areas. Such additional resouces made the future of natural gas bright and pormised low and stable gas price in the future. Deep natural gas is defined as the gas existing at or below 15,000ft$(4,752{\cal}m)$ in depth from the surface. According to the study from the U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) in 1995, 1,412 TCF of technically recoverable natural gas was remained to be discovered or developed in the onshore of United States. A significant part of that resource base, 114 TCF, exists at deep sedimentary basins, and it shows wide distribution with various geological environments. In 1995, the deep gas contributed to $6.7\% of total supply amount of natural gas in the United States and is expected to be $18.7\% by 201.5. However, the development of the deep gas is a high risky business due to expensive investment and high portion of dry holes, although it is developed. Thus, for developing the deep gas economically, it is necessary to overcome many technical challenges. In this paper, for increasing success rate of the deep gas, 1) geologic and compositional characteristics, and production cost have been analyzed according to depth, 2) technical problems related to deep gas production have been summarized, and 3) finally future study areas for increasing application of the deep gas have been suggested. For reference, this paper was written based on the study results from USGS and Gas Research Institute(GRI), for the United States is doing the most active R&D in the deep gas area, and thus, has many reliable data.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2020

In recent years, oil prices have continued to be low owing to the development of unconventional resources such as shale gas, coalbed methane gas, and tight gas. However, shipping companies are still experiencing difficulties because of recession in the shipping market. Hence, they devote considerable effort toward reducing operating costs. One of the important parameters for reducing operating costs is the frictional resistance of vessels. Generally, a vessel is covered with paint for smoothing its surface. However, frictional resistance increases with time owing to surface roughness, such as that caused by fouling. To prevent this, shipping companies periodically clean or repaint the surfaces of vessels using analyzed operating data. In addition, studies using various methods have been continuously carried out to identify this phenomenon such as fouling for managing ships more efficiently. In this study, numerical simulation was used to analyze the change in the resistance performance of a ship owing to an increase in surface roughness using commercial software, i.e., Star-CCM+, which solves the continuity and Navier eStokes equations for incompressible and viscous flow. The conditions for numerical simulation were verified through comparison with experiments, and these conditions were applied to three ships to evaluate resistance performance according to surface roughness.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.201-212
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• 2016

Due to growing problems securing stable mineral and energy resources with international political and economic changes, China has dedicated itself to strategies and policies to enhance its stable mineral and energy resources security. China has established a rare earth elements(REE) industry policy after the abolition of the REE exports quota system. China's six large REE companies have also been integrated into REE mining, smelting and refining companies. Efforts have been increased to enhance China's energy security through unconventional oil and gas exploration and development investment, as well as effort in R&D. The country will focus on technology development and exploration to promote commercial production of unconventional oil and gas based on countries with shale gas. China is making long-term contracts and joint ventures to ensure the acquisition of reliable mineral and energy resources from abroad. Government of China has proposed a range of initiatives, such as the integration of resources development strategies and environmental development strategies, internationalization of resource management, supply diversification and advancement, strengthening industry linking strategy, grouping and diversification strategy.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 1975

The role of fat is important from nutritional standpoint. The physiological functions of fat are energy yielding as well as the carrier of fat soluble vitamins, with special activities of essential fatty acids. It is fortunate that Korean families prefer to use vegetable oils rather than those from animal origin. But the problems are focused on better qaulity of food oils with attempt to exploit the available resources. This study was undertaken to inevestigate the fatty acid compositions of Korean origin both from conventional and unconventional resources of gas-liquid chromatography. The results obtained are as follows. 1. The total lipid contents of seeds of red pepper, Korean squash, sesame, perilla (var Japonica), and Korean pine nuts and walnuts were 24.3%, 56.6%, 56.4%, 46.9%, 69.8%, and 67.2%, respectively. 2. The saponification numbers of samples ranged from 190 to 200. It showed that the mean molecular weights of fatty acids composing the lipids were very much closed each other. 3. Iodine numbers of varing seed oils ranged from 96.5 of Korean squash seed oil to 124.6 of walnut oil. Oils obtained from squash seeds and sesame seeds showed significantly lower value, while others ranged from 122 to 125. 4. In the fatty acid compositions, squash seed oil was composed mainly of unsaturated fatty acids, 74.9% of which was oleic acid, whereas red pepper seed oil, pine nut oil, and sesame oil contained linoleic acid as a major component showing 64.4%, 56%, 48.8%, and 47.8%, respectively. In perilla seed oil, the amounts of linoleic and linolenic acids were 14.1% and 58%, respectively which meant nearly three-fourths of the total fatty acidsbeing the unsaturated essential fatty acids. This study will encourage the use of these conventional and unconventional vegetable oils which have highr ratios of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.351-358
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• 2013

Methane burns more clearly than any other fossil fuels. Coalbed methane(CBM) is natural gas contained in coal beds. This gas is usually producted from coal that is either too deep or too poor-quality to be mined commercially. While global coalbed methane resource estimates are rough, they indicate between 84 and 377tcm, which compares with proven natural gas reserves of 180tcm. Coalbed methane resources are currently only produced on a major scale in the United States, Canada, Australia and China. In this study, we analysed total 109 published papers for the CBM during the 1990~2012 periods by the programs of 'web of science'. The results of analysis, the CBM study led by the United States, the follow India and Australia. In subject area(web of sciences), Energy Fuels is 57, Engineering 58 and Geology 41 papers, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.61-69
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• 2017

The commercial development of unconventional gas is pursued in North America because it is more feasible owing to the technology required to improve productivity. Shale reservoir have low permeability and gas production can be carried out through cracks generated by hydraulic fracturing. The decline rate during the initial production period is high, but very low latter on, there are significant variations from the initial production behavior. Therefore, in the prediction of the production rate using deterministic decline curve analysis(DCA), it is not possible to consider the uncertainty in the production behavior. In this study, production rate of the Eagle Ford shale is predicted by Arps Hyperbolic and Modified SEPD. To minimize the uncertainty in predicting the Estimated Ultimate Recovery(EUR), Monte Carlo simulation is used to multi-wells analysis. Also, kernel density function is applied to determine probability distribution of decline curve factors without any assumption.