The adsorption mechanisms plays an important role in the evaluation and exploration of shale gas resources. Based on the analysis of the influence factors of methane adsorption experiments in shale, some problems and possible solutions have been proposed as follows: (1) The methane adsorption capacity of organic-rich shale is controlled by the characteristics of organic matters, nano-pore structure, composition of inorganic minerals, temperature, pressure, and moisture content. And the pore structure is the most fundamental factor, while the temperature and pressure affect methane adsorption capacity by changing the adsorption-desorption equilibrium of methane. (2) The relationship between the composition of inorganic minerals and methane adsorption capacity become complex because of the influence of sedimentary environment and diagenesis. (3) There are still many problems in the study of adsorption capacity of shale, such as the measurement error of pore structure caused by inaccurate experimental methods, and the deficiency of the study on the effect of adsorption capacity caused by different moisture content, and the uncertainty of the contribution of the other components in shale gas to adsorption capacity. These problems are necessary to be solved by more accurate and more advanced experiments and other molecular simulation techniques. |