Much work has been done targeting hydrocarbon fluids in organic materials of source rocks such askerogen and bitumen.These were,however,limited in scope to simple fluids confined in nanopores andignored multi-component effects.Recent studies using hydrocarbon mixtures revealed that compositionalvariation caused by selective adsorption and nano-confinement significantly alters the fluids phaseequilibrium properties.One important consequence of this behavior is capillary condensation and trappingof hydrocarbons in nanopores.Fluid expansion is not an effective mechanism in these pores.To show theimpact of lean gas injection on the hydrocarbons recovery,an investigation is carried out using equilibriummolecular simulations of hydrocarbon mixtures with varying concentrations of CO2.The results with N2 arealso presented for comparison.We show that large molecules in the mixture are left behind in nanopores aregenerally responsible for the residual hydrocarbon amount,and that high-pressure CO2 injection extractsmore hydrocarbons from the nanopores than that based on pressure depletion only.In these small pores,the injection pressure and the kind of injected gas play a critical role in recovery.We also show that thenanopore surface area,rather than the nanopore size,is the primary factor affecting the residual amount.CO2 molecules introduced into the nanpores during the soaking period of a cyclic injection operation lead toexchange of molecules and a shift in the phase equilibrium properties of the confined fluids.This exchangehas a stripping effect and in turn enhances the hydrocarbons recovery.However,the subsequent productionand pressure depletion has no additional impact on the recovery beyond the stripping effect.CO2 injectionand soaking has the ability to extract the heavier hydrocarbon fluids irrespective of the operating pressureconditions,while the pressure depletion produces the lighter fluids from the nanopores.
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