New development of oil shale in-situ technology

The in-situ technology has been the trend of commercial large-scale exploitation for oil shale. Significant factors that restrict oil shale to go to commercial stage, such as energy demand and environmental protection, are analyzed in detail in this paper. New challenges of the 21^st century faced by in-situ technology as following:energy consumption, water pollution, greenhouse gas emission and so on. Aiming to meet the challenges, many solutions have being studied by laboratories and companies:making use of wind power technology of PyroPhase, utilizing solar energy technology of Heliosat, nuclear plant and chemical precipitation barrier technology of Idaho National Laboratory, freeze wall technology of Shell, CO₂ management simulations tools of Los Alamos National Laboratory, RF/CF technology of Raytheon. Above technologies not only expand the ideas for oil shale in-situ technology, but also provide references for large-scale exploitation of unconventional oil and gas resources.