Recovery of liquid and gaseous products from an in situ oil shale retort

Patent · Tue May 10 04:00:00 EDT 1977

OSTI ID:6375712

French, G B

Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s new in situ method of retorting oil shale to yield liquid and gaseous products uses a less elaborate approach than conventional ones for cooling the retort off-gases to avoid equipment damage. The in situ oil shale retort has a retort off-gas cooling zone at its product outlet end. The kerogen in the in situ retort is converted to liquid and gaseous products by moving a heated gas through a retorting zone and toward the product outlet end. The movement of gas through the retorting zone is terminated when the retort off-gas moving from the product outlet reaches a temperature above which the hot retort off-gases would delerteriously affect the product collection and removal apparatus in the collection zone adjacent to the outlet. A reduced kerogen content of the oil shale in the retort off-gas cooling zone, as compared with the average kerogen content of oil shale in the in situ retort, improves the yield of products from the retort.

• Assignee: Occidental Petroleum Corp.
• Patent Number(s): US 4022511
• OSTI ID: 6375712
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040401* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- In Situ Methods
True & Modified
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COOLING
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GASES
IN-SITU PROCESSING
IN-SITU RETORTING
MINERAL OILS
OFF-GAS SYSTEMS
OIL SHALES
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
PRODUCTION
RETORTING
SHALE GAS
SHALE OIL
SYNTHETIC FUELS
SYNTHETIC PETROLEUM