AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
TECHNICAL, ECONOMIC, AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS FOR IN SITU GASIFICATION OF TEXAS LIGNITE

There is a great deal of interest presently in developing the energy potential of Gulf Coast lignite, mainly because of its proximity to major energy demand centers. The petroleum and petrochemical industry has a particular need for clean, combustible fuels. Most of the present and planned mining activity is located in Texas, and that lignite resource, both at strippable depths and below, has been assessed by Kalser. Kalser estimated the near-surface lignite supply at 12 billion tons, while the so-called deep basin resource contained about 100 billion tons; both figures represent a substantial supply of energy.

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APPENDIX A  RUBBLIZATION OF OCCIDENTAL'S RETORTS 7 AND 8

Retort 6 was Occidental's first commercialized retort constructed using newly-developed horizontal free face blasting technology at the Logan Wash mine in March, 1978. The Retort 6 design used three mined horizontal void levels located at various elevations within the retort height. The basic principle used in blasting Retort 6 was that equal rock be expanded into equal mined void, a  concept termed "symmetric blasting". Retorts 7 and 8  two commercial-sized retorts, 165 ft . (50 m) square  by 241 ft. (73 m) high, were blasted at Logan Wash  in February and April, 1981, respectively. One of  the main purposes of the Retorts 7 and 8 program was  to build two retorts to examine large-scale blasting  reproducibility for commercial-sized rubbiization events. These retorts used the basic Retort 6-type blast design, since it was a straightforward, reliable design that had been demonstrated full-scale.  Numerous design improvements that did not violate the basic Retort 6 blasting principles, however, were incorporated into the Retorts 7 and 8 design to produce a more uniform rubble bed . These improvements were tested and demonstrated before they were used in Retorts 7 and 8 to ensure a successful rubblization of these retorts.

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INDIANA OIL SHALE

Oil shale hints at a future of energy independence and  secure jobs for Hoosiers. But this emerging industry faces several challenges, including environmental guidelines  and uncertain economic projections. Oil shale development is continuing in Indiana, motivated by the potential for a vast new energy reservoir which could  decrease American demand for conventional energy sources. Both the state and federal governments  will continue to play large roles in oil shale development. Indiana is concerned that energy needs are met in a way that also satisfies environmental quality concerns.  But for now, most experts agree that economics are the major factors delaying oil shale development.  It is unlikely that the growth of the oil shale industry will be as explosive as the oil booms of the past. Today the gains  and gambles of the new industry are being weighed more carefully. Development is proceeding with caution.  Research into better and more efficient production processes is presently being conducted, and studies  of environmental effects are under way.  In general, there is guarded optimism for the industry. Perhaps, after being an "almost" industry for so long, oil shale will soon turn the comer into commercialization as a profitable and environmentally well managed industry.

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COMMERCIAL SHALE OIL PRODUCTION FACILITY AT AGENCY DRAW, Ujntah County, Utah VOLUME III

"From 1975 through 1979, oil shale leases were acquired by Geokinetics Inc. on approximately 30,000 acres of land in the southeastern part of Uintah County, Utah. The specific holding involved in the feasibility study is the 22,000-acre block located in T12S and T13S, and R20E and R21E in the Agency Draw vicinity as shown on the map that follows. The feasibility study evaluates two cases.  Case 1 involves a room and pillar-type oil shale mine and surface retorting plant located on Geokinetics'Agency Draw property in Utah.  Case 2 involves a modification to the concept of Case 1 which will facilitate an in situ retorting operation similar to the prototype currently in operation by Geokinetics in Utah under a cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy. The in situ retorting will lag behind the room and pillar mining of a section by several years and will provide additional oil recovery from the mine  pillars and the lower grade shale underlying the mined cavity."

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COMMERCIAL SHALE OIL PRODUCTION FACILITY AT AGENCY DRAW, Uintah County, Utah VOLUME I

"From 1975 through 1979, oil shale leases were acquired by Geokinetics Inc. on approximately 30,000 acres of land in the southeastern part of Uintah County, Utah. The specific holding involved in the feasibility study is the 22,000-acre block located in T12S and T13S, and R20E and R21E in the Agency Draw vicinity as shown on the map that follows. The feasibility study evaluates two cases.  Case 1 involves a room and pillar-type oil shale mine and surface retorting plant located on Geokinetics'Agency Draw property in Utah.  Case 2 involves a modification to the concept of Case 1 which will facilitate an in situ retorting operation similar to the prototype currently in operation by Geokinetics in Utah under a cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy. The in situ retorting will lag behind the room and pillar mining of a section by several years and will provide additional oil recovery from the mine  pillars and the lower grade shale underlying the mined cavity."

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HEAT REQUIRED TO RETORT OIL SHALE CONTINUOUSLY IN A FLUIDIZED SYSTEM

"Using the fluidized- solids technique , a laboratory scale continuous reactor has been used to determine , by direct electrical measurement, the amount of heat required to retort oil- shale . The apparatus was checked by determining the enthalpy of silica sand and found to be 98% accurate . It was found that the total heat required to retort oil- shale entering at room temperature  varied from 300 B. t . u . per pound when retorted at 9000 F to 400 B. t . u . per pound when retorted at 106:) F."

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FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF INCENTIVES FOR DEVELOPING THE NAVAL OIL SHALE RESERVES-1

"The Naval Oil Shale Reserve (NOSR) represents an important publicly-owned energy asset, containing an estimated 2.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources.  The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of the  Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves is charged with  managing NOSR. In this capacity, DOE may recommend  whether and when NOSR should be developed and the terms that will govern its development. At present, project economics would net support private development of NOSR. Nevertheless, DOE is interested in initiating an incentive program to support private development or in undertaking direct government development through contract operation of the reserve."

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IGNITING IN SITU OIL SHALE RETORTS

"Small In situ retorts like the Laramie Energy Research  Center 150 ton (136 metric t) retort are easily ignited using a single large gas burner.  Larger demonstration or commercial size retorts are a problem. however, since a large area needs to be brought up to ignition temperature, and the work is done underground under expensive, inconvenient and restricting conditions. This article discusses technique to evaluate the various  ways an in situ retort can be ignited. Heat transfer, gas flow and combustion equations are modeled to show  combustion front develops in time, The model is applied to  the case where a number of isolated ignition points are  distributed over the upper surface of the rubbilized shale  bed. Results show that such an ignition technique requires  several days to form a continuous burn front. During this  time, there is a massive bypassing of air around the burn  front. This results in hazardous operating conditions, and  possible explosions, In addition, The underlying assumptions of this, study would tend to make the actual fingering worse than these results show, Under some conditions a continuous burn front never is established,  The study indicates that in situ retorts should be lit  evenly across the upper surface, There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, For example. the entire upper surface of the shale bed can be preheated to ignition temperature using burner exhaust gas. When the entire upper surface is above ignition temperature, air can be admitted above the bed, and the upper surface will ignite."

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ISSUE PAPER THE OIL SHALE INDUSTRY

"Oil shale, known for centuries to contain a combustible  material, has periodically been investigated as an energy  source in competition with coal and petroleum derivatives.  In nearly all cases, the economics of producing fuels from  oil shale have been greater than the costs of importing them from oil rich nations. Since oil shale deposits occur in most parts of this planet , many separate and unrelated shale oil recovery programs have been launched and terminated throughout the world. In the United States attempts at establishing commercial industries have been made at several locations. The most successful efforts were conducted by the U. S. Bureau of Mines and private  industry as experimental operations in the vast Green River Formation in Colorado. The formation, a remnant of an ancient sea, covers several thousand square miles of government owned land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. To date, mining problems have been the most critical  technological deterrents to the establishment of a competitive industry and much effort , both private and government, has been devoted to providing solutions."

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Oil Shale Project. Quarterly progress report No. 2, June 1--August 31, 1977

"Work on the BX In Situ Oil Shale Project (Cooperative  Agreement No. EF-77-A-04- 3880 ) during the quarter June 1, 1977 through August 31, 197 7 , was confined primarily to the tasks concerned with site evaluation. This included the drilling of two core holes, BX-12 and BX-13, and the performance and evaluation of a vertical communication test. Specific activities, their results, the interpretation of these results, with resultant recommendations are reported below."

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EXPLOSIVELY PRODUCED FRACTURE OF OIL SHALE. Progress Report. January- March 1976

"This progress report covers work on the oil shale fracture program at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory through March 31, 1976. The report includes three major areas of effort which have been completed.  A. Hugoniots of Green River oil shale  B. Elastic constants of Green River oil shale  C. A subroutine for modeling non-linear elastic-plastic flow  in anisotropic media."

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ANNUAL TECHNICAL PROGRESS REPORT OCTOBER 1986-SEPTEMBER 1987

This report describes the technical progress made by the Western Research Institute of the University of Wyoming Research Corporation on work performed for the U.S. Department of Energy under Cooperative Agreement number DE-FC21-86MC11076 for the period October 1, 1986, through September 30, 1987. This research involves five resource areas: oil shale, tar sand, underground coal gasification, advanced process technology, and advanced fuels research. Under the terms of the cooperative agreement, an annual project plan has been approved by DOE. The work reported herein reflects the implementation of the research in the plan and follows the structure used therein.

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REVISED ANNUAL PROJECT PLAN OCTOBER 1, 1987-SEPTEMBER 30, 1988

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has entered into a cooperative agreement, number DE-FC21-86MC11076, with the University of Wyoming Research Corporation, Western Research Institute (WRI). Pursuant to the terms of that agreement an annual project proposal was submitted for review and approval by DOE. Based on negotiations on that proposal, this annual research plan has been prepared. The research efforts described herein are for the period October 1, 1987 through September 30, 1988.

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AN EVALUATION OF LATERNATIVES IN DOWNHOLE STEAM GENERATION

Studies have been made of two developing technologies. One is down hole steam generation, as such, being developed by Sandia laboratories, in which the steam is injected into the formation, with or without the combustion gases. The other is down hole oil treatment, being developed by World Energy Systems and Aerospace Research Corporation, in which steam is also generated down hole, but from hydrogen and oxygen, usually employing an excess of one or the other. The excess hydrogen is envisioned as possibly dissolving in the oil in place, reducing its viscosity and thereby making it more producible, or chemically reacting with it with the same result. Excess oxygen would permit reactions similar to those taking place in in situ combustion, providing heat, pressure, and possibly, chemically reactive sites for subsequent hydrogenation.

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TRACER AND AIR ACCEPTANCE CHARACTERIZATION OF A SAN JUAN BASIN COAL

As part of an ongoing effort to develop and assess the feasibility of underground coal gasification in New Mexico, a field study was performed to determine the natural flow characteristics of an undisturbed coal seam. Dewatering, air injection, and tracer experiments were conducted on a two-hole test pattern, spaced 30 ft apart, in a 15-ft-thick seam located about 500 ft below the surface. This was the first field experiment in coal to utilize a newly developed down hole measuring system designed and operated by Sandia National Laboratories. From the tracer flow logs and air acceptance tests we found that the formation allows gas flow (100 SCFM at 250 psi) with low water production (50 gpd). While some vertical variation in air flow and tracer residence time through the coal seam was found, all of the coal sustained flow through a relatively low volume of active voids. Only 10 percent of the injected air was recovered and the recovery rate paralleled trends in the injection rate.

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INTERGRATED OPERATION OF FERRIC CHLORIDE LEACHING, MOLTEN-SALT ELECTROLYSIS PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF LEAD

The Bureau of Mines, under a cooperative research program with four lead companies, has investigated a nonsmelting process for the production of lead metal. The process, which would eliminate sulfur dioxide generation and minimize particulate lead emissions, involves ferric chloride leaching of galens concentrate to produce lead chloride, followed by molten-salt electrolysis of the lead chloride to yield lead metal and chlorine. This chlorine is used to regenerate ferric chloride in the leaching solution.

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NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY PLAN

During its first six months, the Administration has reformulated energy policy guidelines within the context of its overall Economic Recovery program. This new national energy policy (of which Executive Branch action is but one part) will continue to develop and to be refined; it will not be tied to a static and unresponsive plan. This document defines the approach for reformulation of policy, and it presents the current energy outlook of the Nation. It is submitted to Congress in accordance with the requirements of Section 801 of the Department of Energy Organization Act (Public Law 95-91). As specific new legislative policy initiatives are developed over the coming months, they will be forwarded promptly to Congress.

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HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS AND SURVEYS US SENTATE

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10a.m., Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney (chairman) presiding. I think it would be well to begin the record by printing the full text of the bill, S. 1243, to authorize the construction and operation of demonstration plants to produce synthetic liquid fuels from coal and other substances, in order to aid the prosecution of the war, to conserve and increase the oil resources of the Nation, and for other purposes.

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DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY MINERALS N NORTHWEST COLORADO

The major objective is to design and manage a program for orderly development of the oil shale resource of northwest Colorado using the following steps: 1. Conduct inventories, clear title, develop plans and environmental assessments to allow the BLM to issue leases for oil shale development and production on federal lands in concert with private oil shale development and production; 2. Prepare a multi-minerals and multiple-resource management plan for the long-term development of all nonenergy minerals and energy minerals in a manner consistent with sound land management principles, taking into consideration physical sciences, biological sciences, and socioeconomic impacts; and 3. Assist private development on approximately 320,000 acres of privately-owned oil shale lands by expediting exchanges, rights-of –way, and other permits on adjacent public lands.

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PROJECT RULISON

"Project Rulison is a joint experiment sponsored by Austral Oil Company, Incorporated, of Houston, Texas, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of the Interior, with the Program Management provided by CER Geonuclear Corporation of Las Vegas, Nevada, under contract to Austral. Its purpose is to study the economic and technical feasibility of using underground nuclear explosions to stimulate production of natural gas from the low productivity, gas bearing Mesaverde formation in the Rulison Field.  Project Rulison involves the detonation of a nuclear explosive equal to 40,000 tons of TNT, at a depth of 8,430 feet underground in the Mesaverde formation underlying the 60,000 acre Rulison Field. The field lies largely in the south-central portion of Garfield County, Colorado, and partly into the northeast portion of Mesa County. The Rulison detonation will take place about 40 air miles northeast of Grand Junction, Colorado.  Rulison is expected provide additional data to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of nuclear stimulation. Such information includes the effects of increased temperature and pressure at greater depths on explosive performance and the effects of higher yield detonations in stimulating the production of natural gas. Austral hopes this will be the first step toward full development of this major gas reserve."

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PETROCHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS: LIGHT OLEFINS FROM OIL SHALE

The national concern for new sources of liquid  hydrocarbon fuels has been increasing. However, many of our most important chemicals, plastics, and fibers are based on light olefins and aromatics which are derived today from limited petroleum and natural gas supplies. DuPont has initiated programs to evaluate new sources of feedstocks for petrochemicals which will be available late in this century and early in the next. Shale oil, derived from the pyrolysis of Kerogen contained in Green River Oil Shale, appears to be a promising replacement feed for olefin production units.

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PROJECT GASBUGGY

There are four primary objectives of the Gasbuggy experiment: (1) to determine the change in gas production rates and estimate the increase in ultimate recovery caused by the nuclear explosion and to determine, to the extent possible, the mechanisms responsible for these changes; (2) to determine the gas quality with regard to radioactivity, and to evaluate various purification techniques. The measurement of the gas quality will provide data to determine if the gas from nuclear stimulation projects would have to be treated before it could be used commercially; (3) to develop technical engineering knowledge in the use of nuclear explosions to stimulate natural gas fields; (4) to refine existing predictive capability for seismic effects or ground motion on gas field equipment and other structures that may be subject to damage. The project will also provide experimental data on the effect of a nuclear explosion on sandstone and will provide another test of the theory that describes such physical effects as chimney size and extent of fracturing.

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HYDROLOGIC INFORMATION NEEDS FOR OIL SHALE DEVELOPMENT, NW COLORADO

"The Piceance basin of northwestern Colorado contains large reserves of oil shale. Expected development of oil shale will affect the regional hydrologic systems because most oil-shale mines will require drainage; industrial requirement for water may be large; and oil-shale mines, wastes, and retorts may affect the quantity and quality of surface water and ground water. In addition, the oil-shale industry may discharge particles and gases to the atmosphere that could alter the quality of high-altitude lakes and surface-water reservoirs.  Hydrologic data need to be collected in order to plan for oil-shale development and to estimate the effects of development. Test-well drilling and aquifer testing are needed to provide a better understanding of the local and regional flow system, to furnish additional data for a model that stimulates mine drainage, and to explore for water supplies in aquifers of Paleozoic and Mesozoic age. Improved understanding of the hydrologic flow system also will result from additional studies of ground-water quality because major aquifers can be distinguished by certain dissolved constituents, and the solution of evaporate minerals affects water quality and permeability. Much of the ground water in the bedrock aquifers discharges through springs, and a systematic study of the springs will help to predict the effects of mine drainage on spring discharge and quality. Surface runoff, dissolved and suspended loads in streams, and the aquatic environment in streams would be highly susceptible to the disruptions in the land surface and will require additional study in order to estimate the effects of development. A water-quality assessment is proposed for the White River basin because it is a possible source of water and a region likely to be affected by development. The effects of emissions to the atmosphere from oil-shale plants require study because these emissions may affect the quality of water in lakes downwind. Spoil piles of retorted oil shale may be very large and require study to anticipate any problems caused by leaching and erosion. Processing wastes resulting from in-situ retorts and other waste materials need to be studied in greater detail in order to estimate their impacts on the hydrologic system."

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THREE-DIMENSIONAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR SIMULATING THE HYDROLOGIC SYSTEM IN THE PICEANCE BASIN, COLORADO

"The Piceance basin extends over an area of about 1,600 square miles in northwestern Colorado and includes the drainage basins of Piceance, Yellow, Roan, and Parachute Creeks. Beneath the drainage basins lie the Uinta and Green River Formations of Eocene age and older rocks. The Uinta and Green River Formations consist of marlstone, sandstone, and siltstone and include large reserves of oil shale. Extensive fracturing and leaching of the formations has increased their permeability and resulted in aquifers that lie within, above, and below the oil-shale deposits.  The hydrologic system of the basin consists of natural recharge from precipitation, circulation through fractured aquifers and confining beds, and discharge to stream valleys or seepage faces. Previous models were utilized to simulate the flow systems in the northern part of the Piceance basin. A preliminary three-dimensional, five-layer simulation model was prepared for the entire basin using available hydrologic data. The model was used in a steady-state error analysis to assess the degree of error in the hydrologic parameters used in the model. This analysis indicated that simulated hydrologic characteristics are plausible, all layers exhibit impaired vertical hydraulic conductivity, and one layer may exhibit lateral directional transmissivity. However, the model could not be calibrated because of the paucity of data in some regions of the basin."

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