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Title: Hearing on conversion of oil shale to synthetic fuels, October 7--9, 1975

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7336492

The principal process steps of the IGT process as applied to above-ground oil shale hydroretorting are discussed and illustrated. Raw, crushed shale passes downward as a moving bed through a reactor that is internally divided into three continuous-operation zones. The feed shale is prehydrogenated and preheated in the upper zone, and hydroretorted and/or hydrogasified in the middle zone. The spent shale is cooled in the bottom zone. Hydrogen feed to the bottom zone recovers essentially all the sensible heat in the spent shale, then uses this heat to preheat the feed shale in the upper zone. This hydrogen stream bypasses the middle zone, where the major portion of retorting occurs. In the manner described, highly efficient, countercurrent heat utilization can be obtained in the upper and lower zones without the usual problems of condensation of retorted oils and resultant plugging of the shale preheat bed. A separate hydrogen stream passes through the middle zone and hydroretorts the prehydrogenated kerogen to produce a mixture of gaseous and vaporized hydrocarbons. The effluent gases and vapors from the middle zone are cooled; the resulting oils are collected and fractionated. The heavy fraction is used for hydrogen production; the high-quality, low-sulfur fraction is one of the coproducts. The effluent gases are further processed into pipeline quality gas. If desired, anysuitable portion of the light fraction can be readily hydrogasified and upgraded to produce additional quantities of high-Btu pipeline gas. Tests with a simulated in-situ retort on the applicability of the method to the underground processing of oil shale were encouraging. Flow sheets for above-ground and in-situ versions of the process are included.

Research Organization:
Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, Ill. (USA)
OSTI ID:
7336492
Report Number(s):
NP-21195
Resource Relation:
Other Information: IGT oil shale process for above-ground and in-situ hydroretorting
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English