BUREAU OF MINES General administrative direction for Missouri Basin Project activities of the Bureau of Mines was assigned to the Regional Director, Region III, headquartered at Denver, Colorado, under a reorganization effective January 2, 1955. During fiscal year 1955, 13 Missouri Basin preliminary reports were completed by the Bureau of Mines and circulated to Interior Department agencies. Coal and Lignite The Bureau's coal research in the Basin is conducted at experiment stations in Denver, Colorado, and Grand Forks, North Dakota. Following reorganization, a decision was made to centralize Region III's process evaluation work and to discontinue this activity at Grand Forks. Also, the petrographic laboratory was transferred from Grand Forks to Denver and will be replaced at Grand Forks by an infrared spectrometric laboratory for tar characterization and other product studies. An industry-sponsored survey of development possibilities in North Dakota and adjoining areas, centering around increased utilization of lignite, was completed by the A. D. Little Company. Based on its study, A. D. Little recommended research by the Bureau or others on use of lignite in electric furnace smelting of iron ore, in low-shaft furnaces for iron-ore reduction, and in processing of taconite. Basin Projects Lignite storage. --Temperature and gas composition surveys on lignite storage at Garrison Dam, North Dakota, were carried out at periodic intervals. There is now nearly 2,000,000 tons of lignite in storage, 800,000 tons of it in large storage pile 5. Gas analyses and temperature measurements show that while seasonal variations do occur at the surface, the main body of the thoroughly compacted pile remains in a safe, stable condition. Full-pile-depth samples were to be obtained in June to determine heating value loss during storage. Recently, wind erosion of weathered lignite on the exposed surface of the pile has caused some difficulty. In one instance, spontaneous heating occurred in a wind-deposited drift of slack on the side of pile 5. The heated material was spread by bulldozer toward the base of the pile and compacted. The Corps of Engineers has installed snow fences atop the pile to control slack deposition. Periodic leveling of the drifts will be required. Should further tendency to heating be observed, it may prove necessary to remove slack from the piles as it accumulates, or to protect the pile surface by binding agents or a nonslacking cover. Carbonization assays. -- These assays were carried out on lignites from more than 30 different mines and potential mining areas in the northern Missouri Basin, Assays were made on face samples from commercial mines, samples from core drilling, and samples of lignite preprocessed by steam drying. Yields of tar and light oil from 500° C. carbonization ranged from 5.5 to 11.0 percent, averaging about 8.5 percent, based on moisture- and ash-free lignite. Results of a number of the assays were reported in Preliminary Report 97, "Some Carbonization Assays of North Dakota Lignite", issued in November 1954. Preliminary investigations were made on composition of the distillate fraction of tar from 650° C. carbonization of lignite. The alkalisoluble material was subjected to repeated thermal fractionation to obtain increments of approximately 2° C. boiling range. These narrow cuts are being examined further by chemical reaction and determination of physical properties. Regular Projects Main research projects during fiscal year 1955 at the Lignite Experiment Station in Grand Forks were on constitution and fundamental properties of lignite, gasification with oxygen-steam, and preparation and storage. Projects on pelletizing, steam drying, combustion in a small domestic heater, and production of crude ammonia synthesis gas from lignite in the annular-retort gasifier were completed in June 1954. A 6-month test program on a domestic overfeed stoker (Harrington) was completed in September 1954, and a survey of boiler-plant combustion of lignite was initiated. Process evaluation of drying and gasification processes also was carried out on a limited basis during the year. As an initial phase of the gasification project, a bench-scale study is being made on agglomerating and carbonization characteristics of as-mined and steam-dried lignite at temperatures up to 1000° F. and hydrogen or inert gas pressures up to 1000 p. s.i. Research on constitution and properties has centered on detailed characterization studies of tar products from low-temperature carbonization of lignite. Preparation studies have included grindability testing, field tests of power requirements for pulverizing, and preliminary tests on lignite agglom eration by freezing and effectiveness of freeze-proofing additives.. At the Denver Experiment Station, hydraulic transportation of lignite is under study in a cooperative project with industry. Emphasis now centers on attrition, dewatering, and thermal drying of fine lignite. Pilot plant tests also are being made to establish the drying and carbonizing properties of various Colorado and Wyoming coals. An associated problem is the collection of char dust prior to tar condensation. Numerous variations of mechanical and electrostatic collection have been tested. It has been demonstrated that a combination of mechanical separators and electrostatic precipitator reduces solids in the tar plus light oil to about 1.5 percent, as compared to 3.5 percent for cyclone separators alone. Mechanical separation is not effective on particles less than 5 microns in diameter. Petroleum and Natural Gas Basin Projects Williston Basin. --Report of Investigations 5055, "Petroleum in the Williston Basin, including parts of Montana, North and South Dakota, and Canada, as of July 1953", was published in August 1954. There were some 500 producing oil wells in North Dakota and 145 in eastern Montana in April 1955, which represents a substantial development in the four years since April 1951, when oil was discovered in the Basin. Cheyenne River Division. --Preliminary Report 95, "Petroleum and Natural Gas Resources and Development in the Cheyenne River Division of the Missouri River Basin", was distributed among Department of the Interior agencies in October 1954. This particular division had the most concentrated drilling and development program of any Wyoming basin during 1953 and 1954. Missouri-Souris Division. --Preliminary Report 102, "Petroleum and Natural Gas Resources and Development in Missouri-Souris Division of Missouri River Basin", was distributed in June 1955. This report includes the area formerly in the Garrison Division which was incorporated into the Missouri-Souris Division in 1954. |