Kerogen decomposition kinetics of selected Green River and eastern US oil shales from thermal solution experiments

Conference · Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1987 · American Chemical Society, Division of Petroleum Chemistry, Preprints; (USA)

OSTI ID:5338812

Leavitt, D R; Tyler, A L; Kafesjian, A S

In the thermal solution of kerogen, soluble decomposition products are removed from the oil shale matrix into a solvent--usually present in excess. This provides a favorable method for studying the reaction kinetics of the first steps in the decomposition of kerogen, i.e., the steps in the conversion of insoluble kerogen to a soluble bitumen intermediate. In the work discussed here, thermal solution was used to study kerogen-to-bitumen decomposition kinetics of a Green River oil shale from an outcrop in Hell's Hole Canyon, Uintah County, Utah and a Sunbury oil shale from Montgomery County, Kentucky. The success of thermal solution in removing over 95% of the organic material in the Green River oil shale, including approximately 95% of the aromatic carbon, prompted interest in using this technique to study the recovery of the organic fraction from the more highly aromatic Sunbury oil shale. Kinetic studies using the thermal solution technique were conducted by established non-isothermal procedures at constant heating rates using 1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene (tetralin) as the solvent. The thermal solution yields and the kinetic mechanisms and rate parameters of kerogen-to-bitumen decomposition are presented for the two oil shales studied in this work.

• OSTI ID: 5338812
• Report Number(s): CONF-8704343-; CODEN: ACPCA
• Journal Information: American Chemical Society, Division of Petroleum Chemistry, Preprints; (USA), Vol. 32:1; Conference: Symposium on advances in oil shale technology, Denver, CO (USA), 5-10 Apr 1987; ISSN 0569-3799
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
BITUMENS
CHEMICAL PREPARATION
SOLUBILITY
KEROGEN
DECOMPOSITION
OIL SHALES
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
TETRALIN
SOLVENT PROPERTIES
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GREEN RIVER FORMATION
SOLUTIONS
AROMATICS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DATA
DISPERSIONS
ENERGY SOURCES
EXTRACTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
HYDROCARBONS
INFORMATION
KINETICS
MATERIALS
MIXTURES
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC MATTER
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
REACTION KINETICS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SYNTHESIS
TAR
040500* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Properties & Composition