ABSTRACT

Spores and pollen are regarded as possible progenitors of petroleum. They are transformed into type II kerogen in sediments during diagenesis, which generates petroleum hydrocarbons on catagenesis and metagenesis. Living-pollen grains of Pinus thunbergii were heated to 290°C for 24 hours under the atmosphere in the laboratory to investigate the changes in physical and chemical properties of pollen with regards to the hydrocarbon generation. It was shown that heated pollen grains have decreasing trends in weight, size, atomic H/C ratio and stTAI, but an increasing trend in atomic N/C ratio with increasing temperature, especially in the higher temperature region. The changes in the atomic H/C ratio indicated that hydrocarbon generation from living-pollen grains should take place in the temperature range of about 135 and 230°C.