Mathematical Modeling of in Situ Oil Shale Retorting

George, Jonathan H.; Harris, H. Gordon

doi:10.1137/0714009

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…A range of studies and experiments are needed to understand the impact of various factors on oil shale in situ processing. Compared to the field tests and pilots, numerical simulation is a low-cost and helpful tool for designing and controlling operations and identifying and interpreting observations that differ from model predictions and has been used widely to explore the oil shale in situ conversion processing. ,− For instance, Fan et al investigated the effects of temperature and well layout on the oil shale in situ pyrolysis by numerically simulating the electrical heating process and showed that the oil production rate was highly dependent on electrical heating temperature. Youtsos et al built a one-dimensional model to analyze the thermal front development in porous reservoirs with reaction flows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Hydrocarbon Production and Reservoir Deformation of Oil Shale In Situ Conversion Processing Using a Downhole Burner

et al. 2022

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A three-dimensional numerical simulation of oil shale in situ conversion processing by applying the downhole burner heating technology was conducted. The evolution of the fluid vector and temperature field and the characteristic of kerogen decomposition and oil and gas production were analyzed. The effects of different burning temperatures and gas injection velocities on the thermal evolution processing of oil shale in situ conversion were investigated. The stress–strain and deformation of the oil shale stratum during in situ processing were studied. The results show that kerogen decomposition is a thermo-kinetically controlled mechanism. Both the gas injection velocity and burning temperature can enhance the kerogen decomposition and oil production, especially for the latter one. In addition, the stratum–deformation of oil shale should be considered for oil shale in situ conversion processing, especially for the long-term operational lifetime.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Hydrocarbon Production and Reservoir Deformation of Oil Shale In Situ Conversion Processing Using a Downhole Burner

et al. 2022

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“…Computer models applicable to in situ oil shale retorting have been reported and applied to analyze bench scale and field pilot tests under various conditions (George and Harris 1977;Campbell et al 1980;Braun 1981;Gregg et al 1981;Braun et al 1982). Previous oil shale modeling efforts have utilized a multi-continuum modeling approach consisting of a bed of rock fragments with advective-diffusive heat and mass transport in pore space between fragments and dominantly diffusive transport within the rock fragments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Efficient Modeling Approach to Simulate Heat Transfer Rate between Fracture and Matrix Regions for Oil Shale Retorting

Zhai

Parker

2009

Transp Porous Med

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The conversion of hydrocarbons in oil shale into liquid fuels has gained interest due to decreasing conventional oil reserves. Thermal conversion involves heating fractured rock and recovering gas and liquid phase products. The efficiency of this process is markedly dependent on heat transfer limitations between fracture porosity and rock matrix. Computer models are useful tools for process optimization. Explicit modeling of heat transfer processes within rock fragments would require great computational effort, making inverse modeling and forward process optimization very difficult if not impracticable. In this article, we evaluate the feasibility of using first-order heat transfer formulations to approximate these processes by comparing first-order model results with a rigorous explicit formulation and by comparison with laboratory retorting experiments published in the literature. Comparison of the two modeling approaches indicates that the first-order heat transfer approximation can be used without significant loss of accuracy if the block size and/or heating rate are not too large, as quantified by a proposed dimensionless heating rate. However, computational effort can be decreased by an order of magnitude compared with explicitly simulating diffusive heat transfer. List of symbols bHeating rate d m Rock fragment diameter E m Rate of heat generated (+) or absorbed (−) by reactions H fm Heat transfer rate from the matrix to fractures (+) or visa versa (−) r Radial distance from the center of the rock fragment r H Rate of temperature increase in fractures r m Radius of rock fragments r H Rate of rock surface temperature increase R H Dimensionless heating rate S m Specific heat of the rock matrix, T m is the rock matrix temperature t Time T f Fracture-rock interface temperature at the corresponding location T 0 Initial rock temperature T m Average rock matrix temperature β Linearized heat transfer coefficient λ m Thermal conductivity of the rock matrix ρ m Rock matrix density defined as the solid phase mass per total fracture-matrix volume

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“…Computer models applicable to in situ oil shale retorting have been reported and used to analyze bench scale and field pilot tests under various conditions [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. However, the above simulation was performed on marine Green River oil shale in the western United States.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of in Situ Conversion of Continental Oil Shale in Northeast China

et al. 2016

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A numerical simulation of in situ conversion of continental oil shale in Northeast China was performed. Firstly, the transient temperature field of in situ conversion was calculated. Secondly, the apparent kinetic parameters from thermogravimetric experiments on continental oil shale were obtained. At last, the transformation rates of oil shale at different heating times were calculated applying apparent kinetic parameters to the heating rate obtained in the first step. The results demonstrated that continental oil shale needs to be heated for about 6-8 years to enable its conversion more than 90% under in situ retorting.

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Mathematical Modeling of in Situ Oil Shale Retorting

Cited by 6 publications

References 27 publications

Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Hydrocarbon Production and Reservoir Deformation of Oil Shale In Situ Conversion Processing Using a Downhole Burner

Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Hydrocarbon Production and Reservoir Deformation of Oil Shale In Situ Conversion Processing Using a Downhole Burner

An Efficient Modeling Approach to Simulate Heat Transfer Rate between Fracture and Matrix Regions for Oil Shale Retorting

Numerical Simulation of in Situ Conversion of Continental Oil Shale in Northeast China

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