Advances in Earth Science ›› 2005, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (10): 1100-1105. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2005.10.1100

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THERMOCHEMICAL SULFATE REDUCTION IN SEDIMENTARY-BASINS:A REVIEW

CAI Chunfang ;LI Hongtao   

  1. Key Labortory of Mineral Resources, Institute of Geology and Geophysics,CAS, Beijing 100029, China
  • Received:2004-12-14 Revised:2005-06-20 Online:2005-10-25 Published:2005-10-25

CAI Chun-fang ;LI Hongtao. THERMOCHEMICAL SULFATE REDUCTION IN SEDIMENTARY-BASINS:A REVIEW[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2005, 20(10): 1100-1105.

Thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) has become a hot topic in China after a heavy casualty caused by H2S leakage from natural gas reservoir in East Sichuan Basin. It is frequently observed that methane gas anhydrite mineral H2S gas coexist in the same reservoir.Therefore, reaction of methane with solid anhydrite was proposed to generate H2S under petroleum reservoir conditions (Yue et al., 2003). However, methane is the most stable hydrocarbon under petroleum reservoir conditions. Simulation experiment has shown that it is expected to take 1017 years for 10% anhydrite solid to react with methane, the reaction being not significant in terms of geological time. However, our data show that there exists a positive correlative relationship between methane carbon isotope and the degree to sulfate reduction in the Triassic Jianlingjia Formation and Fexiangguan Formation, East Sichuan basin. The relationship suggests that aqueous sulfate may have reacted with dissolved methane and generated H2S. After TSR is initiated by heavier hydrocarbons, natural gas is expected to have much higher partial pressures of methane and much higher concentrations of dissolved methane than heavier hydrocarbons. Relative 12C-rich methane preferentially reacts with sulfate due to a kinetic fractionation, resulting in residual 13C-rich methane. Based on a great number of experimental simulation, we find that organic matter involved in TSR, TSR initiation temperature and sulfur isotope fractionation during TSR are significantly different from case studies, respectively. One possibility among others is some unknown catalysis involved in TSR. Many lines of evidence have shown that H2S or/and elemental sulfur generated during TSR have been incorporated into organic matter, but rare newly generated sulfur-containing organic compound has been separated and identified in nature.

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