Results of rapid pyrolysis experiments using eastern US oil shale in the Livermore solid-recycle retort

Conference · Sat Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:7148471

Cena, R J; Taylor, R W

Over the past several years Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has operated a 2-ton/day pilot-scale solid-recycle system for the study of oil shale retorting under rapid-pyrolysis conditions. Results of processing eastern US New Albany oil shale are presented and compared with results obtained previously using two western US Green River oil shales. The retort consists of a cascading mixer and plug-flow soak-tank pyrolyzer with an air lift pipe and cascading-bed combustor. In the solid-recycle system, spent shale leaving the pyrolyzer is burned in the lift and cascading-bed combustor and then returned to the retort to heat the incoming raw shale. In laboratory experiments, when raw shale is rapidly heated in a fluidized bed of sand, oil yields above those of Fischer assay are obtained. In the present experiments, hot-recycled shale is used as the heat-carrying media, resulting in oil yields comparable to those obtained from Fischer assay. The distribution and composition of solid, oil, and gas throughout the recycle system is reported for the three shales studied. The distribution of sulfur and nitrogen during processing Green River oil shale has been the focus of environmental studies at LLNL. Eastern oil shale contains 5 to 10 times more sulfur and approximately the same amount of nitrogen as western oil shale. The high sulfur content coupled with low carbonate mineral concentrations results in significant sulfur releases in the combustor-gas, compared with trace releases for western shale. Iron oxide in the recycled solid was found to effectively scrub H/sub 2/S from the pyrolysis gas for both western and eastern shales. From 0.4 to 3% of the raw shale nitrogen is released as NO/sub x/ in the combustor-gas for western shale. Releases for New Albany shale are one-tenth these levels. 8 refs., 9 figs., 7 tabs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 7148471
• Report Number(s): UCRL-95824; CONF-861145-2; ON: DE87004361
• 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
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMICAL REACTORS
CHROMATOGRAPHY
DATA
DECOMPOSITION
DENSITY
DESIGN
DISTILLATION EQUIPMENT
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
GASES
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INFORMATION
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
MATERIALS
MINERAL OILS
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL SHALES
OIL YIELDS
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PYROLYSIS
RECYCLING
RETORTING
RETORTS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SHALE OIL
SPECTROSCOPY
SULFUR CONTENT
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
YIELDS