| Description |
The Clean and Secure Energy from Domestic Oil Shale and Oil Sands Resources program, part of the research agenda of the Institute for Clean and Secure Energy (ICSE) at the University of Utah, is focused on engineering, scientific, and legal research surrounding the development of these resources in Utah. Two significant Task 2 outreach efforts occurred during this quarter. The 2013 Energy Forum was held on April 2, 2013. The forum featured three panelists and a moderator discussing the theme of "How do we move from argument to action". The 2013 University of Utah Unconventional Fuels Conference was held on May 7, 2013. There were two sessions, one focused on the use of simulation in unconventional fuels development and the other on constraints to development. Each session featured brief presentations from the panelists followed by a question and answer period. Conference attendance (130+) exceeded that of all previous conferences. For Subtask 3.1, researchers used results from the market assessment report (Subtask 6.3) in a life-cycle analysis to determine the impact of oxyfiring on greenhouse gas emissions from unconventional fuels development. The Subtask 3.3 and 3.4 research teams analyzed constraints to both conventional and unconventional oil development, including water availability, regulatory hurdles, and transportation capacity. They also developed a validation and uncertainty quantification (V/UQ) strategy for comparing available data on conventional oil development to model output. Subtask 4.3 and 4.9 researchers continued the preparation of two joint manuscripts, one related to characterization of three Skyline 16 core segments and the other to kerogen pyrolysis products and modeling. Subtask 4.2 researchers have recreated a model in COMSOL for comparison and validation with the core-scale experiments to see whether the predictions can be improved. Results of this effort will be summarized in an upcoming topical report. The Subtask 4.7 team designed and built a new clamshell heater so that samples can be tested at pyrolysis temperatures and deformation can be measured in three orthogonal directions. Subtask 4.1 researchers modified the generalized, rubblized shale bed geometry by replacing the pipe heating element with a planar heating element. They also successfully addressed meshing difficulties encountered previously to create a mesh that captures heat transfer not only through the pieces of shale, but also through the convective channels which are formed between the rubblized pieces of shale. The Subtask 4.8 team has prepared detailed detailed cross sections (both N-S and E-W) of the Green River Formation across the Uinta Basin. All the data associated with this work will be uploaded to the ICSE repository. Subtask 5.3 involves an analysis of policy and economic issues associated with using simulation to assess environmental impacts. Research on existing judicial and agency approaches for estimating error in simulation methodologies used in context of environmental risk assessment and impacts analysis was augmented in this quarter. The Market Assessment, which comprises Subtasks 3.1 (Phase I), 6.1, and 6.3, was released on July 5, 2013. The report, which is 339 pages long, may be downloaded from http://www.icse.utah.edu/leftnavid3subleftnavid10subpage115. It is also available on a flash drive by contacting ICSE. The final deliverable for Subtask 6.2, a topical report summarizing the Canadian oil sands experience, has undergone final review and will be released in August 2013. Task 7 researchers continue to work with American Shale Oil (AMSO). The Subtask 7.1 team began development of "Version 1" of their geomechanical model, which will include AMSO data. Subtask 7.3 researchers completed a progress report on V/UQ of the Generation 1 simulation with AMSO experimental data (attached as Appendix C). They also developed a relationship for density as a function of grade and began simulations of AMSO's March 2013 heater experiment. |
