Oil shale programs. Eighth quarterly report, October 1977--December 1977

Technical Report · Mon May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978

OSTI ID:6871770

Boade, R R ^[1]

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1. ed.

Activities are reported in a program to develop the technology needed for the in situ processing of oil shale, to demonstrate the technical feasibility of such processing, and to evaluate its economic viability. The effort to reach these objectives is made by providing technical assistance and field support to Laramie Energy Research Center (LERC) for specific field projects. The activities of the present reporting period have been confined to the hydraulic/explosive fracturing experiment which is in progress at Site 12 of the LERC field laboratory near Rock Springs, Wyoming. The highlight of the quarter was the successful execution of the explosive portion of this experiment on December 1, 1977. This successful event was particularly significant since a previous attempt to detonate four months earlier (August 10) had failed. Important aspects of the Site 12 experiment are given. In support projects for in situ oil shale processing development of equipment and techniques for use in monitoring, controlling, and evaluating in situ oil shale fracturing and retorting events is reported. In other work, instrumentation and analytical support for oil shale projects which draw financial support from the DOE was provided. In work devoted to in situ shale bed preparation dynamic and quasi-static laboratory experiments are in progress to examine the deformation and fracture behavior of various grades of oil shale and work is underway to develop and verify computational procedures for field applications. The selection of particular tasks for study is based in part on the immediate needs of the other oil shale activities and also on longer term requirements established by the overall goals of the program.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, N.Mex. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-04-0789
• OSTI ID: 6871770
• Report Number(s): SAND-78-0858
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040300 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Drilling
Fracturing & Mining
040401* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- In Situ Methods
True & Modified
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COMMINUTION
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
DEFORMATION
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING
FOSSIL FUELS
FRACTURE PROPERTIES
FRACTURING
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GREAT LAKES REGION
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
IN-SITU PROCESSING
IN-SITU RETORTING
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MICHIGAN
NORTH AMERICA
OIL SHALE DEPOSITS
OIL SHALES
OXYGEN METERS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PROCESSING
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESOURCES
RETORTING
ROCK MECHANICS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
SITE PREPARATION
TESTING
USA
UTAH
WYOMING