The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 04, 1980
Filed:
Dec. 14, 1978
Olaf A Larson, O'Hara Township, Allegheny County, PA (US);
Charles W Matthews, Lakewood, CO (US);
Gulf Oil Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
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.