Modeling of the In-Situ Production of Oil fromOil Shale

摘要

Scarcity of conventional oil reserves amidst increasing liquidfuel demand in the world have renewed interest in oil shaleprocessing because of the massive accessible resources. In-situoil shale production has a lessened environmental impact,and likely lower cost than mining and surface processing. Afew current processing strategies are briefly described. Heattransfer pathways, chemical kinetics, geomechanics, multiphasefluid flow, and process strategies all provide complexitiesto any in-situ oil shale production strategy. Understandingeach of these phenomena, and appropriate model couplingis necessary to accurately model in-situ oil shale productionprocesses. Results from in-situ oil shale modeling with theSTARS simulator by the Computer Modeling Group (CMG)are discussed. Idealized energy efficiency and carbon footprintfor this type of process were estimated as 3:1 net energy gainand 36 kg CO_2/bbl oil produced respectively.