Full-Scale Permeability, Porosity, Particle Size Distribution of an Oil Shale Rockfill

摘要

A process utilized in the proprietary Red Leaf Resources EcoShale- technology involves mining oil shale, and either screening, or crushing and screening, to produce a rockfill product. Engineering properties of the rockfill are utilized across a variety of engineering disciplines. Full-scale field testing was commissioned to measure the permeability and porosity on oil shale rockfill with particles up to 203 mm (8 inches) and particle size distribution analyses were performed on rockfill with up to 914 mm (36 inch) particles. Large construction equipment was utilized to perform what would otherwise be simple tasks in a standard laboratory setting. A specially designed 2600 kg (5720 lb) permeameter was constructed and utilized for the full-scale field testing; the permeameter was designed to minimize rigid wall effects and provided a minimum specimen dimension to the maximum particle size ratio of 10:1. Laboratory testing was performed to provide supporting data, including specific gravity, absorption, modified Fischer assay (MFA), as well as PSD analysis for the smaller particle size fraction.