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Pyrolysis is the process whereby solid, liquid, and gaseous materials are thermally degraded in the absence of oxygen into smaller molecular fragments. Microscalesealed vessel (MSSV) pyrolysis was originally designed to replicate in the laboratory petroleum-forming reactions which naturally take place on longer time scales, and has a broad range of uses in the natural and earth sciences. Pyrolysis has been widely used to examine the biological and diagenetic origins of complex, naturallyoccurring geopolymeric materials. This has important applications to petroleum, shale gas, and shale oil resources; relating the structure and composition of macromolecules to their precursor organisms and the diagenetic modification, as well as modelling their progressive thermal degradation during progressive subsidence, are the fundamental lines of research being undertaken in petroleum exploration and production science. MSSV pyrolysis is a microanalytical technique developed for artificially maturing kerogen, coal, asphaltenes, or whole rock powder and then quantifying the major GC-amenable organic components generated. MSSV pyrolysis has the same advantages as analytical pyrolysis in being online, rapid, and highly reproducible. It has been demonstrated that predictions of first-formed petroleum compositions from MSSV pyrolysis, for prolific petroleum source rocks, are correct, and this is supported by direct comparison with natural petroleum systems.

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