205,727 research outputs found
Production of Shale Oil
No full textIntensive pre-project feasibility and engineering studies begun in 1979 have produced an outline plan for development of a major project for production of shale oil from private lands in the Piceance Basin in western Colorado. This outline plan provides a blueprint for the development of a 28,000 acre holding on Clear Creek in Garfield County, Colorado on property acquired by Standard Oil of California in the late 1940's and early 1950's. The paper describes these planning activities and the principal features of a proposed $5 billion project to develop facilities for production of 100,000 barrels per day of synthetic crude from oil shale. Subjects included are resource evaluation, environmental baseline studies, plans for acquisition of permits, plans for development of required retorting and mining technology and a preliminary description of the commercial project which will ultimately emerge from these activities. General financial impact of the project and the case for additional tax incentives to encourage it will be described
Shale Gas and the EU Internal Gas Market: Beyond the Hype and Hysteria. CEPS Working Document No. 369, September 2012
No full textThis paper analyses the interplay between shale gas and the EU internal gas market. Drawing on data presented in the 2012 International Energy Agency’s report on unconventional gas and additional scenario analyses performed by the Joint Research Centre, the paper is based on the assumption that shale gas will not fundamentally change the EU’s dependence on foreign gas supplies. It argues that attention should be shifted away from hyping shale gas to completing the internal gas market. Two main reasons are given for this. First, the internal gas market is needed to enable shale gas development in countries where there is political support for shale gas extraction. And second, a well-functioning internal gas market would, arguably, contribute much more to Europe’s security of supply
than domestic shale gas exploitation. This has important implications for the shale gas industry. As it is hard to see how subsidies or exemptions from environmental legislation could be justified, shale gas development in Europe will only go ahead if it proves to be both
economically and environmentally viable. It is thus up to the energy industry to demonstrate that this is the case
Structural characterization of Green River oil shale core segments and the kerogen isolated from these segments
No full textpresentationThe goal is to obtain information about chemical structure of oil shale and its kerogen. This includes chemical characterization of the shale, the isolated kerogen, and the products of pyrolysis of both the shale and kerogen, and provides data for validation of modeling component of the project (later talk in this session)
First symposium on oil shale
No full textQuarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, v.59 no.3.Includes illustrations, charts, graphs, tables.A Synopsis of the Responses Received by the Department of the Interior in Answer to Secretary Udall's Request for Suggestions on the Development of Oil Shale on the Public Lands / John M. Kelly -- Oil from Rock The Gas-Combustion Process / Boyd Guthrie, Sr. -- Conversion of Oil Shale to Refined Products / Harold E. Carver -- Retorting Oil Shale Underground Problems and Possibilities / Bruce F. Grant -- Some Characteristic Properties of Colorado Oil Shale Which May Influence In Situ Processing / V. Dean Allred -- Bureau of Mines Oil-Shale Research / H. M. Thorne -- Oil Shale Development Handicapped by Government Indecision by The Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall -- Memorandum of President Lyndon B. Johnson Concerning Lease Agreement -- News Story Concerning Lease Agreement -- Some Oil Shale Problems / John H. East, Jr. -- Foreign Oil Shale Industries and Their Influence on United States Oil Shale Development / Russell J. Cameron -- Oil Shale and the Depletion Allowance / John B. Tweedy -- Status of Unpatented Claims / Richard M. Schmidt, Jr. -- Physical Background Oil Shale / Frank C. Cooley -- Geology and Oil-Shale Resources of the Green River Formation / John R. Donnell
Weathering and brittleness in shale fill dams and embankments
No full textResearch and industrial concern has been expressed about the behaviour of mudrocks when used in engineering structures. In particular the loss of strength in shale fills caused by chemical weathering processes and by progressive failure arising from overstressing and brittleness is an important consideration in design. A literature review into use of the term 'brittleness' to describe this loss of shear strength has revealed infrequent references, but those that were found refer to a wide scope of failures including liqufaction events and long term slope stability problems. The use of large size shear box equipment has been reviewed as an appropriate method of testing the brittleness of shale fills in the laboratory. A range of materials, from fresh shale to shales retrieved from dams of different ages in the north east of England, has been collected for shear strength testing and for chemical and mineralogical examination to determine the condition of the fill. Research has concentrated on such rocks as it was possible to obtain. Although the samples have not exhibited wide lithological and geotechnical variations the work has highlighted several significant features including the need for resolving appropriate methods of testing. The results of the work were generally in accordance with earlier research on Carboniferous rocks by suggesting similar material trends in, on the one hand, Namurian shale dams and associated spoil heaps and, on the other hand, colliery spoil heaps of Westphalian shale as had been previously observed
Towards ecological restoration strategies for Peninsula Shale Renosterveld: testing the effects of disturbance-intervention treatments on seed germination on Devil's Peak, Cape Town
No full textThe ecological restoration of Peninsula Shale Renosterveld is essential to redress its conservation target shortfall. The ecosystem is Critically Endangered and, along with all other renosterveld types in the Cape lowlands, declared 'totally irreplaceable'. Further to conserving all extant remnants, ecological restoration is required to play a critical part in securing biodiversity and to meeting conservation targets. Remnants of Peninsula Shale Renosterveld are situated either side of the Cape Town city bowl and, despite formal protection, areas of the ecosystem are degraded and require restoration intervention. The body of research addressing restoration in renosterveld is small, yet growing, and seed-based restoration efforts have achieved limited success. This study primarily set out to further understand community recovery through determining the effects of interventions, implemented to mimic ecological drivers, on several seed germination criteria. Thirty-two interventions (comprised of five, crossed factors: burning, tillage, herbicide-application, rodent-exclusion and seeding) were incorporated into a field experiment situated in an area that was most likely ploughed over a century ago and is currently dominated by alien, annual grasses. Additional aspects of the study included determining the physiological status of the seed from 31 harvested species (through viability and germinability tests) towards identifying key restoration species, and, assessing intervention costeffectiveness as a measure of intervention feasibility. The majority of the harvested species exhibited moderate to high levels of viability and germinability and occurred in the middle or upper key-restoration-species index range, indicating their potential for use in future restoration efforts. Seeding contributed considerably to overall community attributes, significantly increasing indigenous seedling density, species richness and canopy cover. Due to the dominance of alien, annual grasses, seeding alone was relatively ineffectual and recruitment was considerably improved when seeding was implemented in conjunction with one or more of the other interventions. These findings indicate that a lack of available seed is not the only barrier to community recovery and that competition exerted by the alien grass component plays a large role in inhibiting seedling recruitment of desirable species. Intervention effectiveness increased with the number of factors per intervention yet, fortuitously, the most effective interventions were not necessarily the most costly. Some interventions resulted in good performances and have the potential to restore self-perpetuating communities with a semblance of ecosystem composition, structure and function. There is a clear and promising way forward incorporating these findings into feasible, implementable, landscape-scale, ecological restoration strategies for Peninsula Shale Renosterveld and potentially other Critically Endangered and 'totally irreplaceable' renosterveld ecosystems
24th oil shale symposium proceedings: table of contents
No full textFrom the foreword of this issue: The 24th Annual Oil Shale Symposium was held at a time when the future of commercial shale oil production was very uncertain. Shortly before the Symposium, Unocal Corporation announced that the Parachute Creek oil shale operation was to cease operation as of July 1, 1991, and the company did not plan to reopen the facility. This effectively closed the only commercial shale oil operation in the United States. Fred Hartly, former President and Chairman of the Board of Unocal, had been active in oil shale development since World War II, and it was largely through his forcefulness that Unocal built the Parachute facility. This effectively closed the only commercial shale oil operation in the United States. Fred Hartly, former President and Chairman of the Board of Unocal, had been active in oil shale development since World War II, and it was largely through his forcefulness that Unocal built the Parachute facility. After his retirement and death, the Parachute facility was placed on a break-even or better operation and, when it became unprofitable during the 1990 calendar year, the decision was made to close the operation. Armand Hammer, Chairman of the Board of Occidental Oil Company, strongly believed in the need for the United States to have an alternative liquid-fuel supply source because the demand for transportation fuels was increasing every year from 1978 to 1991. Nearly two-thirds of the worlds crude oil reserves (600 billion barrels) were in the Middle East, and U.S. dependence on the Middle East was increasing every year. Oil shale deposits in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming contain an estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil. The problem, of course, is to recover this shale oil at a cost competitive with that of conventional crude oil. Mr. Hammer was optimistic that a modified in situ retorting process could be developed by which shale oil could be produced at a competitive cost. He, with the support of Western Congressional representatives, obtained government support on a matching basis for a long-term research and development program. As long as he was alive, Occidental Oil Company was committed to developing this process, but, upon his death, his successors terminated the operation because they believed that the research development costs of modified in situ processing technology could not be justified under present economic and environmental climate. Today, government and industrial support of a research and development program for Western oil shale is virtually nonexistent. The major oil companies who own oil shale lands and in the past funded oil shale research and development, now have only skeleton staffs of one or two persons working on oil shale topics, and they generally are involved in readying files for long-term storage. At this time, the future of the shale oil industry appears to be in the far distance. In spite of the outlook, the papers presented at this 24th Annual Oil Shale Symposium covered the entire of range of topics and are of excellent quality. Included in the Proceedings is a paper that inadvertently was omitted from the Proceedings of the 23rd Symposium. It is published here to make the record complete and I apologize to M. Ron Cattany for its omission. This Proceedings once again is being published as a Colorado School of Mines Quarterly. During the early years of the symposia, the proceedings were published as Quarterlies, but when the sessions grew to the point that the papers given required more than one Quarterly per year, the Proceedings were published as separate volumes. Now that that number of papers is smaller and the number of attendees is less than 100, publishing the Proceedings once again as a Quarterly will give broader dissemination of the information. The quality of the Symposium would not have been possible without the support of the authors and their employers. The Colorado School of Mines and I wish to express our thanks for their continuing support. - James H. Gary, Director, 24th Annual Oil Shale Symposium.Foreword / James H. Gary -- Methane Occurrences and Potential Resources in the Lower Parachute Creek Member of Green River Formation, Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado / Rex D. Cole and Gerald J. Daub -- Robert B. Crookston His Oil Shale Achievements, His Collections, and the Tell Ertl Oil Shale Archives / Robert N. Heistand and Mark T. Atwood -- Blasting-Induced Rock-Motion Modeling Including Gas Pressure Effects / Dale S. Preece and Steven D. Knudsen -- Field Evaluations with a Low-Incendive Blasting Agent in Oil Shale Mines / Eric S. Weiss, Kenneth L. Cashdollar, Michael J. Sapko, and Eugene M. Bazala -- Attrition and Breakage of a Western Reference Oil Shale at Process Temperatures / Ulrich Grimm and Glenn Swaney. Update on the Radio-Frequency In Situ Extraction of Shale Oil / J.E. Bridges and G.C. Sresty -- Economic Aspects of Oil Shale Production Using Radio-Frequency In Situ Retorting / W.S. Streeter, J.E. Bridges, and G.C. Sresty -- Oil Shale Retorting with Steam and Recycle Gas / L.S. Merrill and L.D. Wheaton -- Hot-Recycled-Solid Pilot Plant1991 Status Report / Robert J. Cena -- Analysis of Particle Slip and Drag in a Lift Pipe Used in the Hot-Recycled-Solid Oil Shale Retort / D.F. Aldis and CB. Thorsness -- Chemical Basis of Middle-Distillate Fuel Instability Interactive Effects of Selected Nitrogen Heterocycles with Organic Acids and Bases in a Shale-Derived Diesel Fuel / George W. Mushrush, Erna J. Beal, Robert N. Hazlett, and Dennis R. Hardy -- Exploitation of Shale Hydration for Leachate Control in Disposed Oil Shale / David B. McWhorter, George H. Watson, Juergen Braun, and Earl D. York. The Positive Environmental Experience at Unocal's Commercial Shale Oil Project / William L. Sharrer -- Socioeconomic Impact of the Unocal Oil Shale Project An Analysis / Jim Evans -- Commercial Feasibility of Producing Shale Oil-Modified Asphalt / Larry A. Lukens and Mark A. Plummer -- Commercial Economics of Shale Oil-Modified Asphalt / Larry A. Lukens -- Update on the Colorado Tract C-b Oil Shale Demonstration Facility / Leroy Dockter -- Environmental Analysis of Occidental Oil Shale Inc's Proof-of-Concept Oil Shale Project / P.F. Ziemkiewicz -- The Combustion Press Effectiveness Factor of Oil Shale Char Particles / Min Lin, Xianqing Wang, Jialin Qian, and Yajia Zhu -- Colorado Oil Shale Initiatives for the '90s / Ronald W. Cattany
Integrated characterization of an organic-rich caprock shale, Svalbard, Arctic Norway
No full textBoth thermogenic and biogenic gas were encountered during scientific drilling on Svalbard, Arctic Norway. The thermogenic gas has been encountered in an interval at 650-703 m depth, spanning both the lower part of the caprock, an organic-rich shale unit with subordinate siltstone intervals, and the upper part of the siliciclastic reservoir targeted for CO2 storage. Both water injection tests and gas flow tests were conducted to establish the formation injectivity and production capability of this interval. In this contribution, we investigate the organic rich shale interval in detail, integrating well data with direct observations on outcrop analogues, to present a conceptual model of the reservoir-cap rock interface
Thermogravimetric analysis of pretreated Göynük oil shale and sirnak asphaltite
No full textTo investigate the effect of mineral matrix on thermal degradation of Göynük oil shale and Şirnak asphaltite, their samples (initial ones and those subsequently treated with solutions of the acids: HCl, HNO 3 and HF) were studied in a thermogravimetric analyzer. Initial and HCl-washed samples showed similar degradation behavior, while HNO3 washing affected it in both cases. Changes in organic structure, which is different for shale and asphaltite - the former being aliphatic, and the latter having aromatic character - after HNO3 treatment affected the degradation kinetics of the samples differently, whereas the mineral matter content had no effect on it
Trumble oil shale cycle distillation plant, The
No full textQuarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, v.19 no.3.(NOTE: The following article was written after a personal visit to the plant. The statements made are issued with the approval and authorization of Mr. Trumble, except the concluding paragraph.) The investigations of M. J. Trumble at his experimental plant at Alhambra, California, bid fair to mark a new era in the distillation not only of oil shale but of coal and other hydrocarbons
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