Laboratory study of Green River oil shale retorting under pressure in a nitrogen atmosphere. Technical progress report
Studies were carried out on a 31-gallon-of-oil-per-ton Green River shale sample to determine the effects of pressure, sweep gas rate, and heating rate on the batch retorting process. Each experiment was performed in a vertical pressure retort with downward sweep gas flow, which could be heated at any predetermined fixed rate to a final bed temperature of about 950/sup 0/F. Pressures from atmospheric to 1,500 psig, nominal heating rates from 14/sup 0/ to 125/sup 0/F/hr, and nitrogen sweep gas space velocities generally in the range from 1 to 125 scf/hr/ft/sup 2/ of bed have been studied. Oil yields, gas yields, and the ultimate distribution of the initial organic carbon in the raw shale are reported. Pressure was the only variable which had an appreciable effect on the results of the retorting process. With increase of pressure, the oil yields (including C/sub 4/+ gases) were found to decrease from an average of 93 percent (of modified Fischer assay) at atmospheric pressure to 78 percent at 1,500 psig. Other effects of increasing pressure were an increase in gas production, an increase in retorted shale coke, a decrease in oil specific gravity and viscosity, and an increase in the amounts of lighter distillation fractions for the oil. Oil yields were not found to decrease as greatly with increased pressure as those reported in an earlier study. A simple mathematical model was developed which accounts for the effect of pressure on oil yield. This model also gives oil production curves with time that are in reasonable agreement with measurements made during the current work.
- Research Organization:
- Energy Research and Development Administration, Laramie, Wyo. (USA). Laramie Energy Research Center
- OSTI ID:
- 7268082
- Report Number(s):
- LERC/TPR-76-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
OIL SHALES
RETORTING
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
GAS FLOW
GAS YIELDS
GREEN RIVER FORMATION
HEATING
HIGH PRESSURE
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEDIUM PRESSURE
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
NITROGEN
OIL YIELDS
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUID FLOW
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GASES
NONMETALS
YIELDS
040402* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Surface Methods
040500 - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Properties & Composition