Independent Energy Partners, Inc. (IEP) is an
oil shale resources company based in
Parker, Colorado, the United States. It is a developer of the Geothermic Fuels Cells Process, an ''
in-situ''
shale oil extraction process. CEO of the company is Alan K. Forbes.
History
IEP was founded in 1991 as an energy project and technology development company.
[ Since 2002, it has focused on the development of its Geothermic Fuel Cell technology. On February 3, 2004, IEP received an initial patent on the Geothermic Fuels Cells and on April 13, 2005, IEP retained the consulting firm Sage Geotech to produce technical assessments related to this technology. On March 1, 2006, IEP concluded negotiations with ]Battelle Memorial Institute
Battelle Memorial Institute (more widely known as simply Battelle) is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation u ...
, the operator of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of the United States Department of Energy national laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington.
O ...
, for development of the Geothermic Fuel Cell prototype and in September 2008, they signed agreements for modeling, analysis, design and engineering to commercialize this technology and related applications.[
] The continuation-in-part application for the Geothermic Fuel Cell Process was issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 27, 2007.
In August 2005, IEP concluded has mineral interests lease within the Green River Formation.[ In August 2008, IEP signed a partnership agreement with Total S.A.][
]
Operations
IEP owns the patents to the Geothermic Fuel Cell technology (US Patent Nos. 6,684,948 B1-Apparatus and Method For Heating Subterranean Formations Using Fuel Cells and 7,182,132 B2-Linearly Scalable Geothermic Fuel Cells). Fuel cells are developed by Delphi Corporation.[
IEP owns mineral interests in the oil shale reserves within the Green River Formation, including in ]Rio Blanco County, Colorado
Rio Blanco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,529. The county seat is Meeker. The name of the county is the Spanish language name for the White River which runs through it.
H ...
.[
]
Geothermic Fuels Cells Technology
In the Independent Energy Partners' Geothermic Fuels Cells (GFC), a high-temperature stack of fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
s is placed in situ or in place within a formation. During an initial warm-up period, the cells are fueled by an external source of natural gas. Afterwards, the process is able to fuel itself using oil shale gas generated by its own waste heat. The formation is fractured by rising fluid pressure in the heated zone. Alternatively, the formation can be pre-fractured to enhance the shale oil flow between heating and producing wells.[
] The company asserts a ratio of approximately 7 units of energy produced per unit used, when primary recovery is combined with gasification
Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (). This is achieved by reacting ...
of the residual char and use of the resulting oil shale gas.[ In addition, the fuel cell produces ]electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions o ...
as a by-product of the process.[
]
Oil Shale Alliance
IEP together with Petro Probe, Inc. and Phoenix Wyoming, Inc have formed the Oil Shale Alliance, Inc., a Delaware corporation for the purpose of commercialization of ''in-situ'' oil shale technologies.[
]
References
External links
* {{official website
Oil companies of the United States
Oil shale companies of the United States
Companies based in Denver
Parker, Colorado