Hot Bitumen Grouting at the Avery Island Salt Mine-PPT Presentation

PPT Presentation

Pdf Summary

The presentation describes hot bitumen grouting as a specialized option for controlling large, fast-moving water inflows that can wash conventional cement grout out of a formation. Heated to about 200°C, the single-component bitumen rapidly thickens on contact with water. It can adhere to conduit walls or form an insulated “grout balloon” around the injection pipe, helping resist washout.<br /><br />At the Avery Island Salt Mine in Louisiana, a water blowout occurred at the 700-foot mining level in 2011. Repeated grouting campaigns reduced but never fully sealed the inflow. Cement, polyurethane, cold emulsion, sodium silicate, and other materials had limited success; cement grout often washed into the mine. In 2019, the mine owner approved a hot bitumen program.<br /><br />The system used a double-wall injection pipe, a steel TAM pipe, and a rupture disc. Hot oil preheated the equipment and formation before bitumen injection. Because the target zone was more than 130 meters deep and the site had limited access, the team built insulated supply and return lines and monitored temperature, flow, and pressure centrally. Work also required careful safety controls for high temperatures and pressures.<br /><br />From summer 2020, bitumen was injected during eight events across three holes over six months. More than 1,000 m³ of bitumen and 400 m³ of cement-based grout were pumped. Each bitumen event reduced inflow without significant bitumen appearing in the mine, and connection times between cement-grout holes and the mine increased. The final event reduced flow to about 20 gallons per minute, from roughly 80–90 gallons per minute beforehand. The program was later paused because of funding constraints.

Keywords

hot bitumen grouting

water inflow control

Avery Island Salt Mine

washout resistance

heated bitumen

grout balloon

double-wall injection pipe

cement grout failure

mine blowout

deep grouting operation