Occidental Oil Shale, Inc.

Other

James S Kilburn

An insulated bulkhead seals an access drift adjacent a hot portion of a fragmented permeable mass of formation particles containing oil shale in an in situ oil shale retort. The bulkhead includes a steel plate for closing the cross-sectional area of the drift. The periphery of the bulkhead is anchored in concrete in a slot cut into the walls, roof and floor of the drift. A first layer of heat insulating material is applied to a face of the bulkhead plate adjacent the hot portion of the fragmented mass for reducing heat transfer to the bulkhead from the fragmented mass. A second layer of heat insulating material covers the walls, roof and floor of the drift adjacent the insulated face of the bulkhead plate to minimize thermal degradation of formation surrounding the periphery of the bulkhead.

Thermally insulated bulkhead for in situ oil shale retort

An in situ oil shale retort is formed in a subterranean formation containing oil shale. A void can be formed in formation within the retort site by directing fluid under pressure against a zone of relatively weakened formation, such as tuffs, gravel beds, or fractured oil shale, to erode such weakened formation into particle form, leaving a void space adjacent a remaining zone of unfragmented formation within the retort site. The void space can be formed by drilling a bore hole into the zone of weakened formation, placing a jet nozzle in the bore hole, and forcing a fluid such as water through the nozzle against the weakened formation for eroding it to form the void space. Eroded formation particles are passed to the bottom of the bore hole. Such water jetting techniques can be used to form voids in zones of weakened formation interspersed throughout the retort site. Remaining formation within the retort site is explosively expanded toward such a void space for forming a fragmented permeable mass of formation particles containing oil shale in an in situ oil shale retort. The amount of eroded formation particles jetted from the retort site can be measured prior to explosive expansion for providing a selected void fraction in the resulting fragmented mass. Explosive also can be placed in voids excavated by such jetting for such explosive expansion.

Jetting out weak areas for forming an in situ oil shale retort

Impurities are removed from impure water by introducing the impure water into a fragmented permeable mass of particles containing raw oil shale. The water introduced can be water containing hydrocarbons such as water obtained from retorting oil shale or water containing suspended solids such as blowdown from a steam generator. After introducing impure water into the fragmented permeable mass, the mass of particles can be retorted. This is particularly advantageous when the introduced water contains hydrocarbons because at least part of the hydrocarbons removed from impure water can be recovered by retorting.

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Grand Junction, CO, United States of America

James S Kilburn