Subterranean mineral deposits, such as oil shale or the like, are prepared for in situ retorting by selectively mining out an area at the base of the deposit leaving an overlying deposit supported in a suitable manner such as by a plurality of pillars. The overlying deposit is expanded in any suitable manner into the underlying area in a fashion to create a predetermined distribution of permeability from an area of low permeability to an area of high permeability. An inlet is provided at the low permeability area and an outlet at the high permeability area. A suitable medium is introduced into the deposit at the low permeability end for extracting and forcing mineral values from the deposit toward the outlet end for recovery.
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12. A method of preparing a subterranean mineral deposit for in-situ extraction of mineral values therefrom comprising the steps of:
selecting a portion of said deposit for processing; providing an outlet in communication with an area defining a base of said selected portion of said deposit; providing an inlet communicating with said selected portion at a point spaced from said outlet so that said portion lies substantially between said inlet and said outlet; breaking said portion of said deposit into rubble defining a permeable zone extending between said inlet and said outlet and continuously increasing in permeability with increasing distance from said inlet to said outlet so that the process of extraction may be initiated at the inlet and the extracted minerals transported through high permeability area to the outlet.
28. A method of preparing a subterranean mineral deposit for in-situ extraction of mineral values therefrom comprising the steps of:
selecting a portion of said deposit for processing; providing an outlet in communication with an area defining a base of said selected portion of said deposit; providing an inlet communicating with said selected portion at a point spaced from said outlet so that said portion lies substantially between said inlet and said outlet; breaking said portion of said deposit into rubble defining a zone of permeability extending between a point of at least halfway to said inlet from said outlet and continuously increasing in permeability with increasing distance from said point to said outlet so that the process of extraction may be initiated at the inlet and the extracted minerals transported through high permeability area to the outlet.
26. A process for the in-situ recovery of carbonaceous values from subterranean deposits which comprises the steps of:
selecting a portion of said carbonaceous deposit as an in-situ retort by establishing confining barriers within which the process is to occur; establishiing communication with the base of the subterranean deposit; undercutting at least at the base of said deposit to remove from 0.5 percent to 25 percent by volume of said deposit thereby leaving an overlying deposit supported by pillars and a void into which said overlying deposit can be broken; providing said void with a source inlet and an outlet spaced from said inlet, and said void being shaped to have minimum space at said inlet and expanding to a maximum at said outlet; breaking said overlying carbonaceous deposit to provide a rubblized particulate mass having a void volume approximately equal to the volume of said undercut; said breaking being carried out in a manner to provide a gradation of rubber size from a minimum size at a point at least halfway to said inlet from said outlet to a maximum size at said outlet; providing conduit means for communicating reacting fluids for initiating and controlling a combustion process within said rubble; initiating a combustion process near the inlet and controlling said combustion for driving carbonaceous values to said outlet; and withdrawing said carbonaceous values from said deposit as said outlet.
1. A process for the in-situ recovery of carbonaceous values from subterranean deposits which comprises the steps of:
selecting a portion of said carbonaceous deposit as an in-situ retort by establishing confining barriers within which the process is to occur; establishing communication with the base of the subterranean deposit; undercutting at least at the base of said deposit to remove from 0.5 percent to 25 percent by volume of said deposit thereby leaving an overlying deposit supported by pillars and a void into which said overlying deposit can be broken; providing said void with a source inlet and an outlet spaced from said inlet, and said void being shaped to have minimum space at said inlet and expanding to a maximum at said outlet; removing said pillars for thereby initiating the breaking of said overlying carbonaceous deposit to provide a rubblized particulate mass having a void volume approximately equal to the volume of said undercut; said breaking being carried out in a manner to provide a gradation of rubble size from a minimum size at said inlet to a maximum size at said outlet; providing conduit means for communicating reacting fluids for initiating and controlling a combustion process within said rubble; initiating a combustion process near the inlet and controlling said combustion for driving carbonaceous values to said outlet; and withdrawing said carbonaceous values from said deposit at said outlet.
2. The process of
5. The process of
6. The process of
7. The process of
forming a cluster of adjacent retorts separated by thin wall partition pillars; and processing said cluster of adjacent retorts simultaneously.
8. The process of
partially removing said partition pillars for inclusion into said processing.
9. The process of
10. The process of
selecting said deposit from the group consisting of oil shale, oil tars, oil sands, tar sands, gilsonite, black shales, lignite, and coal.
11. The process of
13. The method of
explosively breaking overlying portions of said deposit into said undercut by predetermined placement of explosives thereby forming rubble having a gradation of size to provide increasingly larger interconnected voids from said inlet to said outlet to define said increasing permeability.
14. The method of
15. The method of
16. The method of
17. The method of
18. The method of
19. The method of
the step of selecting said portion includes selecting a portion having a width of from 1/2 to 2 times the thickness and a minimum length of 21/2 times the height.
20. The method of
21. The method of
22. The process of
selecting said deposit from the group consisting of oil shale, oil tars, oil sands, tar sands, gilsonite, black shales, lignite, and coal.
23. The process of
forming a cluster of adjacent retorts separated by thin wall partition pillars; and processing said cluster of adjacent retorts simultaneously.
24. The process of
partially removing said partition pillars for inclusion into said processing.
25. The process of
27. The process of
29. The method of
explosively breaking overlying portions of said deposit into said undercut by predetermined placement of explosives thereby forming rubble having a gradation of size to provide increasingly larger interconnected voids from said point to said oulet to define said increasing permeability.
30. The method of
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This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 939,420, (abandoned) filed Sept. 5, 1978 for the Re-Issue of Pat. No. 3,980,339 granted Sept. 14, 1976 based on application Ser. No. 568,900 filed Apr. 17, 1975. In other words, the deposit is broken-up, such that the permeable zone between the inlet and outlet is characterized by continuously increasing in permeability with increasing distance from the inlet to the outlet. A process of recovery is initiated at the inlet and recovered materials driven through the permeable portion of the formation to the outlet and thereat recovered.
While the present invention has been described with respect to specific embodiments, it is to be understood that numerous changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
Heald, David D., McKinnell, John C., Lekas, Mitchell A.
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| Executed on | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance | Frame | Reel | Doc |
| Jul 14 1982 | Geokinetics, Inc. | (assignment on the face of the patent) | / |
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