In situ oil shale retort having horizontally offset pillars

Details In situ oil shale retort having horizontally offset pillars In situ oil shale retort having horizontally offset pillars

1979-09-19

1981-10-27

Pate, III, William F.

Mining or in situ disintegration of hard material

Tunnel recovery of fluid material

299 13, E21C 4110

Patent

active

042969689

ABSTRACT:
An in situ oil shale retort is formed in a subterranean formation containing oil shale. Formation is excavated from within a retort site for forming a plurality of vertically spaced apart voids extending horizontally across different levels of the retort site, leaving a separate zone of unfragmented formation between each pair of adjacent voids, and leaving one or more pillars within each void for providing temporary roof support for unfragmented formation above each void. A plurality of horizontally spaced apart vertical blast holes are drilled in each zone of unfragmented formation below the voids. A pillar within a first void is offset horizontally from at least a portion of a pillar in a second void excavated directly below the first void. This provides an access region in the first void above at least a portion of the pillar in the second void so that vertical blast holes can be drilled into a zone of unfragmented formation below the pillar in the second void from the access region in the first void. Explosive is placed in the blast holes and such explosive in detonated for explosively expanding the zones of unfragmented formation toward the voids for forming a fragmented permeable mass of formation particles containing oil shale in an in situ oil shale retort. By horizontally offsetting pillars in adjacent voids, a combination of upwardly drilled and downwardly drilled blast holes can be used to place explosive throughout a zone of unfragmented formation between such voids.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4017119 (1977-04-01), Lewis
patent: 4043597 (1977-08-01), French
patent: 4043598 (1977-08-01), French et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

In situ oil shale retort having horizontally offset pillars does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with In situ oil shale retort having horizontally offset pillars, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and In situ oil shale retort having horizontally offset pillars will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-276380