Extraction of Green River and Chattanooga oil shales with strong bases and nucleophilic displacement reagents. [Organic carbon]

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985

OSTI ID:6194590

Robertson, R E; Holmes, S A

Shale kerogen has been degraded to an organic solvent-soluble bitumen or oil by numerous methods. The various methods have been employed either to study production of oil or to gain insight into the structure of kerogen. The purpose of this investigation was to gain insight on kerogen structure by examination of the effects of strong base and nucleophilic displacement reagents on western and eastern shales. Powdered shales from the Green River and Chattanooga formations were extracted with potassium hydroxide in 1-propanol, potassium hydroxide in 1-butanol, 1-butylamine in 1-butanol, and sodium borohydride in tetrahydrofuran, all at reflux. Residual shales were extracted with benzene-methanol. The products were isolated and weighed in an effort to find a system that would degrade the kerogen to a soluble bitumen under basic, solvolytic conditions. The extraction of Green River shale with potassium hydroxide in 1-butanol gave the highest conversion (40.2 wt %) of organic carbon. The solutions containing butylamine and sodium borohydride gave small yields of product. The results from extraction of Chattanooga shale showed approximately 20% conversion with potassium hydroxide in 1-butanol while all other systems exhibited very small conversions. 21 refs., 4 tabs.

• Research Organization: Western Research Inst., Laramie, WY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FC21-83FE60177
• OSTI ID: 6194590
• Report Number(s): DOE/FE/60177-1993; ON: DE86004933
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040402* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Surface Methods
ALCOHOLS
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
AMINES
AROMATICS
BENZENE
BITUMENS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
BORON COMPOUNDS
BUTANOLS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHATTANOOGA FORMATION
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
EXTRACTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
FURANS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GREEN RIVER FORMATION
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
HYDRIDES
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXIDES
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
KEROGEN
MATERIALS
METHANOL
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL SHALES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC MATTER
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
POTASSIUM HYDROXIDES
PROPANOLS
REAGENTS
RECOVERY
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
TAR
TETRAHYDROFURAN
THERMAL RECOVERY
YIELDS