Ex-situ extraction of green river oil shale by combustion
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
The Green River, Utah holds the world's greatest oil shale resources. However, the hydrocarbon, which is namely kerogen, extraction from shales is limited due to environmental and technical challenges. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of the combustion process for shale oil extraction. Samples collected from the Green River formation were first characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Then, series of dry combustion tests were conducted at different heating rates and wet combustion tests by water addition. The combustion efficiency was enhanced by mixing oil shale sample with an iron based catalyst. The effectiveness of dry, wet, and catalyst added combustion processes was examined by the organic yield. Because the conventional oil shale extraction methods are pyrolysis (retorting) and steaming, the same experiments were conducted also under nitrogen injection to mimic retorting. It has been observed that the combustion process is a more efficient method for the extraction of kerogen from oil shale than the conventional techniques. Because the combustion process accomplishes the production of entire organic content which can be condensed at different temperatures through distillation to obtain different hydrocarbon products from kerogen.
