Energy from Eastern oil shales: an overview of research status

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6264613

Punwani, D V

The oil shales of the Eastern United States represent a very large energy resource that also lies close to the marketplace. Although estimates vary, one estimate shows that more than 400 billion barrels of oil are recoverable from surface-mineable Devonian oil shales in the states of Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Conventional thermal retorting of Eastern and Western oil shales with comparable organic carbon contents results in a much lower oil yield for the Eastern shales. This discouraged research and development of this energy resource, until about ten years ago, when the Institute of Gas Technology discovered that retorting Eastern oil shales in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere at elevated pressures gives oil yields that are 2.5 times those possible by thermal retorting. Over the last ten years many research, development, and feasibility programs, both Government- and industry-funded, have been conducted to utilize the Eastern oil shale resources. The scope of these programs has included thermal retorting, hydroretorting, fluid-bed retorting, solvent extraction, gasification, beneficiation, and environmental testing. The scale of testing in these programs has ranged from laboratory scale through large pilot plants. This paper presents an overview of the research relating to the processing of Eastern oil shales to recovery energy. 44 refs., 4 figs., 4 tabs.

• Research Organization: Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, IL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6264613
• Report Number(s): CONF-850301-10; ON: TI86900926
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040400* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Oil Production
Recovery
& Refining
ALABAMA
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
BLACK SHALES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHATTANOOGA FORMATION
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA
DECOMPOSITION
DEVONIAN PERIOD
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SOURCES
EXTRACTION
FEDERAL REGION IV
FEDERAL REGION V
FISCHER ASSAY
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GASIFICATION
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
HYTORT PROCESS
IN-SITU PROCESSING
IN-SITU RETORTING
INDIANA
INFORMATION
KENTUCKY
MATERIALS
MICHIGAN
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
OHIO
OIL SHALE DEPOSITS
OIL SHALES
OIL YIELDS
PALEOZOIC ERA
PARAHO PROCESS
PROCESSING
RESOURCES
RETORTING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
TENNESSEE
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TOSCO PROCESS
USA
YIELDS