EcoShale In-Capsule Hydrocarbon Recovery

CLIENT: Red Leaf 

LOCATION: Uinta Basin, Utah

TOTAL INSTALLED COST: 12 Million

Fee: $1 million

PROJECT SCHEDULE: One Year

In partnership with Red Leaf’s EcoShale subsidiary, PSE worked to engineer and design a pre-pilot capsule to prove that oil can be extracted from oil shale when exposed to heat. The goal of the project was to create in-capsule extraction to produce oil from shale in a more economical and environmentally friendly way without compromising quality. PSE was involved in detailing methods for separating oil and fines, capturing vapors, flaring non-condensables, separating water from oil, and implementing proper safety systems.

The prototype process took surface mined shale, crushed it, and returned it to the capsule location, covering it with native surface materials. Hot air is blown through a pipe heat exchanger embedded in the crushed shale. As the oil liquifies, it settles into a trench at the bottom, allowing it to be withdrawn. It is then pumped to storage tanks for transportation and refining.

PSE provided engineering and design services to scale up the heating system, oil withdrawal system, tank storage system, process controls, capsule engineering and design, steel bulkhead engineering and design and the complete electrical substation and distribution engineering and design.   PSE worked closely with chemists and developers to scale up from bench testing to production testing.

The prototype proved successful and Red Leaf was able to acquire additional funding to further process and research this mining technique.

As a result of this project, PSE is now recognized as a go to company in the oil shale and oil sands processing industry for engineering and design services.