Review of electric heating technology of oil shale and its simulation

Oil shale is a sedimentary rock with a dense texture and contains a large amount of organic matter ( the main component is oil mother), which can be converted into shale oil by low-temperature carbonization of oil shale. The traditional ground-retorting oil shale mining technology has high costs and pollution problems. The in-situ mining technology of oil shale based on electric heating is gradually becoming the research focus in this field. In this paper, the electric heating mechanism, pyrolysis mechanism, and entropy production theory of oil shale are introduced. The traditional electric heating technology ( Shell in-situ conversion process, Electrofrac TM process, GFC technology, etc.) and the new electric heating technology are compared. In the numerical simulation, the heat transfer theory of rock mass and oil and gas, the temperature field of oil shale, the layout of oil wells, and the frozen wall are comprehensively studied. Given the current research direction of oil shale electric heating in-situ mining, the future development direction is put forward, which has specific guidance and reference significance for the future research of oil shale electric heating in-situ mining technology.