In the field of energy utilization and environmental protection, shaly and clayey formations play important roles in providing fossil fuels and confining waste materials. The effective prediction of fluid flow behaviors and storage capacities of shaly and clayey formations is the prerequisite in many geological and geoengineering applications, e.g., petroleum exploration and development, hydrogen storage, carbon dioxide sequestration, and nuclear waste disposal. Nevertheless, some aspects of rock physical properties of shales and clays are poorly understood. For example, 1) How do temperature variations affect the permeability and porosity of shales and clays? 2) How, and to what extent does the tiny quantity of liquid hydrocarbons affect the sorption capacity of organic-rich shales? 3) What is the most likely occurrence of hydrogen in geological formations? 4) What are the mechanisms of storing and trapping carbon dioxide? 5) How do the physical properties of host formation evolve during and after radioactive waste disposal? It is necessary to address the above-mentioned issues to reduce the risks in all kinds of geological applications.

This Special Issue encourages authors to submit their original and novel studies to improve our understanding of the fluid flow behaviors and storage capacities of shaly and clayey formations. We welcome both original research and review papers.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• New advances for permeability and porosity characterization
• Effects of temperature on the fluid flow and storage capacity of shale and clay
• The modes of occurrence of hydrocarbons in shales
• Geological controls of hydrogen storage capacity in clays
• Storage of hydrogen and ammonia in shales
• Solubility of carbon dioxide in brine
• Tapping mechanisms of carbon dioxide by shales and clays
• Coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical processes
• Self-sealing analysis of clays
• Reactive flow-through experimental studies
• Numerical modeling of fluid flow behaviors