Research on Electric Heating Technology In-situ Oil Shale Mining

The oil shale resources are very abundant with its reserve three times as much as world’s proven oil reserve. However, by the limitations of traditional technology and mining methods, the development of oil shale technology is restricted to a great extent. Now researchers are studying the in-situ retorting technology through heating the underground oil shale directly. Then the released oil and gas will be collected on the ground. Among them, electric heating technology is more mature compared with others. In this paper, the oil shale’s physical properties are presented in detail. At a high temperature, the oil shale will be cracked as the generation of lots of pores and fractures, which improves the permeability of oil shale fundamentally and creates good conditions for the output of oil and gas. Meanwhile, some of the most advanced technologies of electric heating process around the world will be discussed as well. By contrast, ICP has greater advantages over other technologies in environment protecting, cost and product. After comprehensive analysis, the development trend of future electric heating technology will be forcasted in this paper.