The Oil Drum

17 comments on In Situ retorting of oil shale

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

totoneila on July 4, 2006 - 6:22pm

Hello Heading Out,

Thxs for the info. I am assuming you read my earlier link on how Nevada gold mining wrecked the water table and riverine habitats, basically for eternity, in the Humboldt Basin. LOTR: "My precious, my precious...!" SAD.

My belief is that shale mining, by any methods illustrated here and in earlier threads, on the mind-boggling scales proposed, will severely disrupt the habitats in these states. I was hoping an expert hydrologist would elaborate here on TOD to say that it is either a problem or not: so I remain confused from lack of data.

Perhaps the next thread on oil shale could investigate mining versus possible enviro-degradation, and the tradeoffs involved, starting with H20? Thxs.

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

treeman on July 4, 2006 - 11:25pm

Shell's process uses cooling coils to freeze the area around the 700 degree heating area in order to prevent water from infiltrating the heated rock. This means there is water there and therefore the water table is bound to be affected.
We seem to be willing to go to amazing extremes to not raise the CAFE standards.