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Structural analysis of retort oil from an Israeli shale

Journal Article · · Liq. Fuels Technol.; (United States)

The complex nature of shale oils hinders the analysis of individual components in these materials. It is important to have a definitive analysis of the liquid products of oil shales in order to understand the mechanism of the reactions which occur during retorting to make effective use of the resultant liquid products. The structural analysis schemes devised for coal liquids may be applied to shale oils for this purpose. In the present work the retort oil obtained from an Israeli shale was analyzed by these newer methods. The oil was separated into pentane soluble (oils) and benzene soluble (asphaltenes) material by solvent extraction. Pentane soluble material was further fractionated by column chromatography into aliphatics, aromatics and polars. The fractions were subjected to elemental analyses, molecular weight measurements and phenolic hydroxyl determinations. The /sup 1/H n.m.r. spectra of all of the fractions were measured. A structural analysis scheme used for coal liquids was employed for shale oil fractions. The structural analysis scheme produced more information than could be obtained from previous analyses. From the structural analysis it was envisioned that the crude shale oil was composed of dimers connected by methylene bridges or heteroatoms. As the polarity of the fractions increased the molecular weight and the degree of the substitution also increased while most of the substitution in asphaltenes was found to be heteroatoms. 14 references, 3 tables.

Research Organization:
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
OSTI ID:
6012335
Journal Information:
Liq. Fuels Technol.; (United States), Journal Name: Liq. Fuels Technol.; (United States) Vol. 3:4; ISSN LFTED
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English