Maria MastalerzIndiana University Bloomington | IUB
Maria Mastalerz
Doctor of Philosophy
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306
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Publications (306)
As nations strive toward achieving sustainability and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, biomass has emerged as an indispensable component of worldwide energy portfolios. Biomass, derived from organic materials such as plants, agricultural residues, forestry byproducts, and organic waste, is a renewable energy source and abundant resource with sign...
The purpose of this study is to (a) specify locations in Indiana that can serve as reference sections for the St. Meinrad Coal Member (Pennsylvanian) and (b) acquire more data to better correlate this coal with its equivalents in the Illinois Basin. The work focused on 1) a core from Indiana Geological and Water Survey drill hole (SDH) 537, latitud...
Derived through the thermochemical conversion of biomass, biochar is a carbon-rich substance recognized for its significance in environmental applications and sustainable agriculture. As interest in its utilization continues to rise, it becomes crucial to comprehend how the source material and pyrolysis parameters influence the properties of biocha...
This study evaluates the quality of 30 biomass pellets sold for residential use in Poland. It provides data on their physical, chemical, and petrographic properties and compares them to existing standards and the information provided by the fuel producers. The results reveal considerable variations in the quality of the pellets and show that some o...
This study aims to investigate the phenomenon of vitrinite reflectance (VRo) suppression in the Devonian-Lower Mississippian New Albany Shale in the Illinois Basin, USA. Thirty-two samples from Indiana and Illinois were analyzed using organic petrography (vitrinite reflectance measurements and maceral analyses) and organic geochemistry (Rock-Eval a...
Second Miocene Seam Complex (2nd MFK; germ.: 2. Mioz¨aner Fl¨ozkomplex) holds many in-situ, not permineralised
fossil tree stumps and trunks with high-cellulose contents. The state of preservation of a set of in-situ fossil
trees (Taxodioxylon cryptomerioides, Sciadopityoxylon wettsteinii, and Quasisequoioxylon piskowitzense) collected
from three o...
Located in the eastern Illinois Basin, the Princeton 1:100,000-scale quadrangle comprises portions of Knox, Gibson, Pike, Dubois, Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, and Spencer Counties in Indiana as well as small portions of Edwards, Gallatin, Wabash, and White Counties in Illinois. The mapped area is situated in the rolling topography of the Wabash Low...
This study evaluates the quality of 30 biomass pellets sold for residential use in Poland. It provides data on their physical, chemical, and petrographic properties and compares them to existing standards and the information provided by the fuel producers. The results reveal considerable variations in the quality of the pellets and show that some o...
Located in the eastern Illinois Basin, the Vincennes 1:100,000-scale quadrangle comprises portions of Daviess, Knox, Sullivan, and Greene Counties in Indiana. It is situated in the rolling topography of the Wabash Lowland and dominated by Pennsylvanian-age coal-bearing strata. Pennsylvanian siliciclastics in the Vincennes quadrangle host economical...
Considering global market trends and environmental climate, increased biomass use for energy is expected to continue. As more diverse materials are being utilized to manufacture solid biomass fuels, it is critical to implement quality assessment methods to thoroughly test these fuels. One such method is reflected light microscopy, which has the pot...
Poster presented at the joint 74th Conference of the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology and the 39th Annual Meeting of The Society for Organic Petrology, Patras, Greece, September 17-24, 2023.
Poster presented at the Joint 74th Conference of the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology and the 39th Annual Meeting of The Society for Organic Petrology, Patras, Greece, September 17-24, 2023.
Considering global market trends and concerns about climate change and sustainability, increased biomass use for energy is expected to continue. As more diverse materials are being utilized to manufacture solid biomass fuels, it is critical to implement quality assessment methods to analyze these fuels thoroughly. One such method is reflected light...
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/aapgbull/article/107/4/685/620945/Petrophysical-property-variations-in-overmature
Biochar, a carbon-rich material produced during the thermochemical conversion of biomass, is considered to be an important material for environmental applications and sustainable agriculture. With interest in its use growing, it is essential to understand how pyrolysis parameters control biochar properties and, subsequently, which analytical method...
With interest rising in biomass use, biomass gasification has the potential to become an imperative mechanism to deliver clean conversion of various types of solid biomass to gas. But as biomass gasification attracts growing interest, it is important to focus not only on the technological feasibility but also fully understand its environmental impa...
Concerns about climate change, energy security, and the diversification of energy supplies have made renewable resources increasingly more attractive and important sources of energy. As this interest rises, biomass utilization has the potential to become one of the pillars of the future energy portfolio. It is, therefore, critical to assure that so...
Organic matter (OM) type critically controls the hydrocarbon generation potential and organic pore development in black shales. However, maceral variation in lacustrine shales and its control of hydrocarbon generation potential and organic pore development are not yet well understood. In this study, 15 Chang 7 Member shale samples of the Yanchang F...
The purpose of this study is to evaluate coal and coal byproducts (coal waste, coal ash, and acid mine drainage) in Indiana as potential sources of rare earth elements (REE). On a whole-rock basis, most Indiana coal samples have REE content below 100 ppm, and only some samples of the Brazil and Staunton Formations (Lower and Upper Block and Viking...
This study examines Pennsylvanian shales in Indiana as a potential source of selected critical elements: rare earth elements (REE), vanadium (V), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), and cadmium (Cd). Widespread, organic-matter-rich marine Desmoinesian black shales are the main target, but other discontinuous shale horizons were also sampled in 11 locations. I...
Recent observations have shown the atmospheric greenhouse gas methane (CH 4 ) is consumed by microorganisms (methanotrophs) in caves at rates comparable to CH 4 oxidation in surface soils. Caves are abundant in karst landscapes that comprise 14% of Earth’s land surface area, and therefore may represent a potentially important, but overlooked, CH 4...
This study characterizes Pennsylvanian paleosols from coal-bearing strata in Indiana, with the main emphasis on the abundance and distribution of rare earth elements (REE) and lithium (Li). Eleven locations in southwest Indiana were selected for this study, targeting paleosols of both the Carbondale Group and Raccoon Creek Group. Most paleosols wer...
We report on a discovery of amber from the Carboniferous sedimentary rocks of the Sydney Coalfield, Nova Scotia, Canada. The amber occurs in the form of droplets and as a linear feature and ranges in colour from light brown to dark purple. The amber was found in situ in siltstone above the Middle Pennsylvanian Hub coal seam, where it was associated...
Rare earth elements and yttrium (REYs) are critical elements and valuable commodities due to their limited availability and high demand in a wide range of applications and especially in high-technology products. The increased demand and geopolitical pressures motivate the search for alternative sources of REYs, and coal, coal waste, and coal ash ar...
As concerns about climate change and sustainability rise, biomass utilization has a potential to become one of the pillars of the future energy market. It is therefore critical to assure that solid biomass fuels are of the highest quality and do not contribute to avoidable air pollution. Our research has shown that petrographic analysis of solid bi...
Organic matter (OM)-hosted pores play important roles in controlling the porosity and gas content of gas shales. However, the control of organic pore development and preservation remains poorly understood, partly because of the inability to distinguish OM types under the scanning electron microscope (SEM). In this study, seven over-mature Wufeng-Lo...
Recent years have witnessed an increasing awareness and interest in rare earth elements (REE). These several, usually unfamiliar elements are key components of countless products used in our daily lives. Because of their use in many modern technologies, including those critical for national security, the demand for REEs grows, and so does their pro...
Laboratory experiments examining the role of water during
hydrocarbon generation have often utilized hydrogen isotopes as
critical tracers [1-8]. This approach has helped in evaluating the
yield and isotopic composition of gases produced from shale
during heating experiments at a range of maturities, especially
when the low temperatures employed ar...
The accessibility of pores to methane has been investigated in Devonian New Albany Shale Formation early-mature (Ro = 0.50%) to post-mature (Ro = 1.40%) samples. A Marcellus Shale Formation sample was included to expand the maturation range to Ro 2.50%. These are organic matter-rich rocks with total organic carbon (TOC) values of 3.4 to 14.4% and p...
The Gzhelian (Stephanian C)-age Pittsburgh coal in southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, and western Maryland has been mined since the 1700's. The coal contributed up to 80% of the US coking coal in the 1880's and continued to be an important source of coking coal through the 20th century. This high-vitrinite coal decreas...
The quality check of grilling wood pellets should be of a critical importance as smoke from their combustion has a direct contact with food, impacts human safety, and pollutes the atmosphere. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the purity of grilling wood pellets and chips available on the market, analyze the properties of t...
The Middle Pennsylvanian Duckmantian-age Fire Clay coal has traditionally been a valuable, high-quality coal resource and, owing the synchronous deposition of a lanthanide-rich volcanic ash fall, is one of the premier coal-based, rare earth resources in the World. While much of the coal is composed of high-vitrinite bright lithotypes, the Bear Bran...
Organic matter (OM)-hosted pores are important constituents of the pore system of black shales and play a crucial role in determining their methane adsorption capacity and porosity. OM-hosted pores are generally observed and described with scanning electron microscope (SEM) on Ar ion-milled surfaces. However, SEM imaging is not able to reliably dis...
One of the main challenges during gas production from shale reservoirs is low recovery rate. One contributing factor to this outcome is an insufficient understanding of pore systems, especially pore behavior following changes in reservoir conditions or resulting from gas production practices. Because the pressure in the producing well can be contro...
Understanding the formation of pore space, especially in low porosity shales (as source rocks and as unconventional resources), is critical to the oil and gas industry, since pores control the space available for hydrocarbon and participate in hydrocarbon transport. We examined 87 Ordovician and Silurian mudstone samples collected from four wells l...
Accessibility of pore space in unconventional reservoirs is an important factor influencing both methane storage capacity and the kinetics of methane desorption. The determination of open (accessible) versus closed (inaccessible) porosity is therefore vital for the prediction of gas production potential. This study investigates accessibility of por...
A 137-m continuous core from the Jurassic-Early Cretaceous marine derived oil shale with the maturity Ro about 0.7 %, representing the oil window in the Vaca Muerta Formation, Neuquén Basin, Argentina, was examined using geological, mineralogical, petrographic, and geochemistry techniques. Three distinct intervals were identified within the core: t...
This “Atlas of Charcoal-Based Grilling Fuel Components” features compilation of over 620 microscopic images taken between 2019 and 2021 while our team was improving methodology of using reflected light microscopy in identification of charcoal-based grilling fuels constituents. These photomicrographs provide documentation of the composition of the f...
A suite of 72 samples of Illinois Basin coal was collected from 2015 to 2018, from 14 active coal mining and preparation operations in Illinois and Indiana. The goals of the study were to investigate the behavior of trace elements during coal preparation and provide current coal quality data for active mining operations in the Illinois Basin, which...
The pore structure characterization and its controlling factors in overmature shales are keys to understand the shale gas accumulation mechanism. Organic matter in source rocks is a mixture of various macerals that have their own specific evolutionary pathways during thermal maturation. Pores within macerals also evolve following their own path. Th...
Concerns about climate change, energy security, and the diversification of energy supplies have made renewable resources increasingly more attractive and important sources of energy. As interest grows, bioenergy (energy from bio-based sources) is becoming more environmentally friendly and economically viable and has started to play a more prominent...
The pore structure characteristics of shales are controlled by their mineralogical and organic matter (OM) compositions. However, the contributions by different components in shales at varying thermal maturities remain poorly understood. In this study, Devonian New Albany Shale and Marcellus Shale samples spanning a thermal maturity from marginally...
This study contributes long-term (14 to 38 months) experimental evidence for geocatalytically mediated methanogenesis in immature to early mature shale and coal source rocks at temperatures from 80 to 120 °C. Borosilicate glass tubes with pre-outgassed coal and shale source rock chips and water were sealed under vacuum, sterilized, heated isotherma...
Is the signature of the original plant communities preserved in coal, or is that signature overprinted by depositional and diagenetic processes? To address this question, Pennsylvanian coals from the Illinois and Appalachian basins were compared to Cretaceous, Paleocene, and Eocene coals of comparable coalification levels as shown by vitrinite refl...
Amorphous organic matter (AOM or bituminite) is a major oil-prone liptinite maceral in black shales that can be classified into two main types: low-reflectance AOM and micrinized AOM. In this study, we investigated the petrographic and chemical structure characteristics of these two types of AOM and discussed their origin based on 15 marine black s...
Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and their collaborators conducted a study of the geochemical properties of coals currently produced for electric power generation in the Illinois Basin in Illinois and Indiana. The study follows from recommendations by an expert panel for the USGS to investigate the distribution and controls of trace...
Three Miocene-age coal seams - a lower seam (kM2, subbituminous), a middle seam (kM3, subbituminous), and an upper seam (kP1, lignite) - in the Kınık coalfield, located in the southwesternmost part of the Soma Basin in western Turkey, and factors controlling mesoporosity and microporosity characteristics, were investigated using low-pressure N2 and...
Previous studies demonstrated that melting, initiated by supercritical fluids in the 375–400 °C range, occurred as part of anthracite metamorphism in the Appalachian Basin. Based on the known behavior of vitrinite at high temperatures and, to a lesser extent, at high pressures, it was determined that the duration of the heating, melting, and resoli...
Mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) analysis was used to study organic-matter-rich Devonian shales varying in maturity from marginally mature to postmature to discuss controls on drainage and imbibition in shale reservoirs. Six samples come from the New Albany Shale; their total organic carbon (TOC) ranged from 3.3 to 8.4% and vitrinite ref...
Numerous studies have been conducted to assess air pollution and human health risks arising from exposure to outdoor cooking, but limited standards have been implemented around the world to assure fuel quality. While charcoal briquettes and lumps are a popular fuel choice for grilling, almost no data specifying their properties are available to con...
This study discusses experiment‐induced alterations of shale rocks collected across the ordovician and silurian boundary at a potential site for carbon dioxide sequestration located in the Polish part of the Baltic Basin. Mudstone samples submerged in brine in custom‐built reactors were subjected to CO2 pressures of 30–35 MPa at a temperature of 80...
Hydrocarbon gas emissions from active, inactive, and improperly sealed or abandoned oil/gas wells significantly contribute to anthropogenically emitted greenhouse gases, predominantly in the form of methane (CH4). We explored the extent of hydrocarbon gas emissions from 20 active, inactive, plugged and abandoned oil/gas wells in Indiana (USA), wher...
This study focuses on variations in petrographic composition and chemistry of macerals from different coalfields in Colombia. The coal-bearing formations in Colombia occur in the age interval from the Maastrichtian in the Upper Cretaceous to the Paleogene and Neogene (Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, and Late Pliocene) up to Early Pleistocene. The coa...
Coal has long been a valuable natural resource in the United States throughout the country’s history. European settlers began to use coal in the late 1740s and, as energy demands increased, coal production climbed from 9.3 million tons in 1850 to 750 million in 1918. Eventually coal replaced wood as the primary energy source, and by the 1940s coal...
As the interest in the renewable resources has been increasing worldwide, the wood pellet sector has the potential to become a mainstream fuel of the future in the heat market. This development is especially noted in the European Union countries which consumed 50 % of global wood pellets in 2018. While only about 2 % of the United States energy con...
Quantifying the petrophysical properties of low-permeability sedimentary units helps to determine the possibility of upward flow of supercritical carbon dioxide when evaluating a site for safe confinement of geologic carbon storage. This research examines fine-scale pore characteristics that affect the sealing capacity of the Upper Ordovician Maquo...
Thermal maturity of source rocks indicated by vitrinite reflectance (Ro) is an important and reliable parameter to determine the petroleum potential of sedimentary basins. Originally, Ro was used to characterize the degree of coalification of coals and thus works well for coal seams, but it has limitations when used to determine the thermal maturit...
Rock mechanical properties of tight shale reservoirs are important parameters in the exploration and development of unconventional shale oil and gas. Understanding the stratigraphic variability of rock mechanical properties in black shale successions is important for identifying promising intervals for hydraulic stimulation. High-resolution hardnes...
Thermal maturation of organic matter in sedimentary rocks is a complex process controlled by multiple parameters. In this study, we examined the thermal history of one location in the Indiana part of the Illinois Basin. A total of 21 samples spanning the time interval from the Ordovician to the Mississippian were selected for maturity assessment an...
An interlaboratory study (ILS) was conducted to test reproducibility of vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance measurements in six mudrock samples from United States unconventional source-rock reservoir petroleum systems. Samples selected from the Marcellus, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Barnett, Bakken and Woodford are representative of resource plays...
Marine organic-rich shales generally have high uranium content associated with sedimentary organic matter. However, organic matter in black shales is not homogeneous, but instead a mixture of different macerals. The uranium content and organic petrographic composition of 27 New Albany Shale samples indicate differential contributions of macerals to...
The principal purpose of this research is to investigate whether elemental chemistry obtained by a portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyzer can aid in correlating lithostratigraphic units within the Pennsylvanian coal-bearing sequence of the eastern part of the Illinois Basin in Indiana. The study is based on data collected from four boreholes: I...