Consolidation of in-situ retort
Shale oil is recovered from an underground oil shale deposit by in-situ retorting of rubblized shale in a retort formed in the deposit. Oil shale in a volume in the range of ten to fifty percent of the volume of the retort is mined from the deposit and delivered to the surface to provide void space for the expansion of the shale that occurs on rubblization to form the in-situ retort. The oil shale delivered to the surface is retorted at the surface. After completion of the in-situ retorting, boreholes are drilled downwardly through the retorted shale and a pipe lowered through the borehole to a level near the bottom of the retort. Spent shale from the surface retorting operation is slurried and pumped into the lower end of the in-situ retort. Pumping is continued to squeeze the slurry into the fissures between blocks of spent shale. The slurry is delivered into successively higher levels of the retort and the pumping and squeezing operation repeated at each level. In a preferred operation, slurry discharged into the retort is allowed to set before discharging slurry into the retort at a higher level to avoid excessive hydrostatic pressures on the retort.
- Assignee:
- Gulf Oil Corp
- Patent Number(s):
- US 4231617
- OSTI ID:
- 6521230
- Resource Relation:
- Patent File Date: Filed date 14 Dec 1978
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
IN-SITU RETORTING
STABILIZATION
OIL SHALES
SPENT SHALES
WASTE PRODUCT UTILIZATION
BOREHOLES
PIPES
SLURRIES
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CAVITIES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
DISPERSIONS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
IN-SITU PROCESSING
MATERIALS
MIXTURES
PROCESSING
RETORTING
SUSPENSIONS
040401* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- In Situ Methods
True & Modified