Integrated in situ shale oil and mineral recovery process

Claim 1

A method of in situ processing of oil shale ore comprising the steps of: (a) establishing first, second, and third underground stopes, each stope being established by removing a portion of the oil shale ore from the stope, rubblizing the remaining ore in the stope, extracting the rubblized ore from the stope, crushing the ore to obtain a first fraction comprising substantially nahcolite particles and a second fraction comprising substantially oil shale particles, separating the substantially nahcolite particles from the substantially oil shale particles, and restoring at least a portion of the substantially oil shale particles to the stope by back filling the stope with said oil shale particles as the extraction, crushing, and separation are carried out to maintain the stope substantially filled with particles, wherein the first stope is a heating stope and having been subjected to retorting and carbon recovery, the second stope is a carbon recovery stope and having been subjected to retorting, and the third stope is a retort stope; (b) injecting gas into the first stope and heating the gas by passing it through the first stope to recover sensible heat from the spent shale therein; (c) transferring the heated gas from the first stope to the second stope and using the heated gas together with steam and a limited amount of air to obtain producer fuel gas by reaction with the carbon on the spent shale in the second stope; (d) transferring the producer fuel gas to the third stope and using the producer fuel gas to retort the contents of the third stope to produce gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons and water; (e) collecting the liquid and condensable hydrocarbon products produced by the retorting of the third stope; and (f) transferring at least a portion of the noncondensable gaseous product of the retorting of the third stope to the first stope for heating to recover sensible heat from the spent shale in the first stope.

Claim 2

A method of in situ processing of oil shale ore comprising the steps of: (a) establishing first, second, and third underground stopes, each stope being established by removing a portion of the oil shale ore from the stope, rubblizing the remaining ore in the stope, extracting the rubblized ore from the stope, crushing the ore to obtain a first fraction comprising substantially nahcolite particles and a second fraction comprising substantially oil shale particles, separating the substantially nahcolite particles from the substantially oil shale particles, and restoring at least a portion of the substantially oil shale particles to the stope by back filling the stope with said oil shale particles as the extraction, crushing, and separation are carried out to maintain the stope substantially filled with particles, wherein the first stope is a heating stope and having been subjected to retorting and carbon recovery, the second stope is a carbon recovery stope and having been subjected to retorting, and the third stope is a retort stope; (b) injecting gas into the first stope and heating the gas by passing it through the first stope to recover sensible heat from the spent shale therein; (c) transferring the heated gas from the first stope to the second stope and using the heated gas together with steam and a limited amount of air to obtain producer fuel gas by reaction with the carbon on the spent shale in the second stope; (d) transferring the producer fuel gas to the third stope and using the producer fuel gas to retort the contents of the third stope to produce gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons and water; (e) collecting the liquid and condensable hydrocarbon products produced by the retorting of the third stope; and (f) transferring at least a portion of the noncondensable gaseous product of the retorting of the third stope to the first stope for heating to recover sensible heat from the spent shale in the first stope.