Atmospheric chemistry of expected nitrogen heterocycle emissions from oil shale operations

Miscellaneous · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6795647

Blatchley, III, E R

One of the major concerns of oil shale retorting is the large quantities of aqueous waste (retort water) and solid waste (spent shale) that will require disposal. Codisposal of these two waste streams, proposed as the most likely disposal scenario, will result in atmospheric emission of the volatile compounds present in the retort waters. The volatile emissions will probably be dominated by alkylsubstituted nitrogen heterocycles, particularly the alkylpyridines. The purpose of this work was to determine the kinetics of the most likely atmospheric chemical reactions for a group of alkylpyridines. Knowledge of these kinetics allowed for estimation of the atmospheric lifetime of each compound based on an assumed set of conditions. Experimental and empirical procedures were used to estimate kinetic coefficients for three possible routes to tropospheric degradation of a group of alkylpyridines. Three experimental procedures were used to estimate photochemical degradation rates. An existing procedure was modified to estimate reactions between the alkylpyridines and ozone, with each of the individual reactions assumed to be elementary and bimolecular. Kinetics coefficients for the hydroxyl radical-alkylpyridines reactions were estimated using an empirical procedure. Attempts at estimating these kinetic coefficients experimentally were unsuccessful. The tropospheric chemical behavior of each of the alkylpyridines was found to be dominated by hydroxyl radical reactions. These reactions will likely determined the lifetime and chemical fate of the alkypyridines in the atmosphere. Of the alkylpyridines investigated, the atmospheric lifetimes were found to be less than 30 days; lifetimes decreased as the degree of alkyl-substitution on the pyridine ring increased.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6795647
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
OIL SHALE PROCESSING PLANTS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
PYRIDINES
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
OIL SHALES
OZONE
PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS
RETORTING
SPENT SHALES
TROPOSPHERE
VOLATILE MATTER
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE WATER
AZINES
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMISTRY
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
KINETICS
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MATTER
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REACTION KINETICS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
041000* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Environmental Aspects