Studies of thermal solution of Utah oil shale kerogen

Thesis/Dissertation · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6530700

Kafesjian, A S

Batch thermal solution of Hell's Hole Canyon oil shale in hydrocarbon solvents has been studied at temperatures of from 274/sup 0/ to 410/sup 0/C. Three solvents were used: cyclohexane, tetralin, and creosote oil. Five hundred milliliters of solvent and 70 grams of -8 +28 mesh shale particles made up the charge to the 1-liter autoclave reactor. In 24-hour, constant-temperature runs under autogenous pressure, each solvent was found to be capable of removing over 90% of the original organic material at extraction temperatures of 360/sup 0/-375/sup 0/C. The results of carbon-13 NMR analyses of the spent shales indicated that uniform removal of both aromatic and aliphatic organic carbon from the shale occurred in tetralin extractions. Pyrolytic processing, in contrast, removes only aliphatic carbons. Simulated distillation by gas chromatography and elemental analysis (C, H, N) were carried out on extracted material and the results were presented on a solvent-free basis. A linear-heating technique was used to determine kinetic parameters for the conversion of kerogen to soluble bitumen. A parallel first-order reaction mechansim for the formation of the soluble bitumen was proposed to explain the experimental results. Mathematically fitting the conversion data to this model resulted in the calculation of Arrhenius activation energies and pre-exponential factors. Good agreement with literature values for low-temperature kerogen conversion was noted.

• OSTI ID: 6530700
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040402* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Surface Methods
040500 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Properties & Composition
ACTIVATION ENERGY
ALKANES
AROMATICS
AUTOCLAVES
BITUMENS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBON
CARBON 13
CARBON ISOTOPES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CHROMATOGRAPHY
CREOSOTE
CYCLOALKANES
CYCLOHEXANE
ELEMENTS
ENERGY
ENERGY SOURCES
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
EXTRACTION
FEDERAL REGION VIII
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN
ISOTOPES
KEROGEN
KINETICS
LIGHT NUCLEI
MAGNETIC RESONANCE
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE
NUCLEI
OIL SHALES
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC MATTER
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARTICLE SIZE
REACTION KINETICS
RESONANCE
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SIZE
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
SPENT SHALES
STABLE ISOTOPES
STRUCTURAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
TAR
TETRALIN
USA
UTAH