Shale oil processed

Shale Oil. In the United States, shale oil, or oil derivable from oil shale, represents the largest potential source of Hquid hydrocarbons that can be readily processed to fuel Hquids similar to those derived from natural petroleum. Some countries produce Hquid fuels from oil shale. There is no such industry in the United States although more than 50 companies were producing oil from coal and shale in the United States in 1860 (152,153), and after the oil embargo of 1973 several companies reactivated shale-oil process development programs (154,155). Petroleum supply and price stabiHty has since severely curtailed shale oil development. In addition, complex environmental issues (156) further prohibit demonstration of commercial designs. 

As of 1995, there were only a few commercial oil shale faciUties operating in the world. These faciUties are located in countries where the economic, pohtical, and environmental requirements for commercial oil shale development are met. There are commercial oil shale faciUties in Bra2il, China, Estonia, and Israel. No commercial oil shale faciUties have existed in the United States because the costs of shale oil processing exceed those associated with conventional petroleum cmde processing. 

Resorcinol may be released to the environment in waste effluents associated with coal gasification and conversion, coal-tar production and shale oil processing and from the combustion of wood and tobacco. It has been detected in low levels in groundwater samples (United States National Library of Medicine, 1997). 

Chemicals j- - Synthetic luels — Shale oil processing Ore reduciion... 

The first feedstock studied under this contract was Paraho shale oil. In a series of recent papers (1-4) and a DOE report (5 ), three basic shale oil processing routes for the production of transportation fuels were studied hydrotreating followed by hydrocracking, hydrotreating followed by fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), and severe coking followed by hydrotreating. 

Raw shale oil is also known to contain uranium, and retorting operations may result in the release of uranium to the environment. Studies indicate that shale oil processing operations may increase atmospheric levels of and by a maximum of 0.04 fCi/m over background levels of uranium (Gogolak 1985). 

Contamination of water by phenol or substituted phenols is very often due to industrial activity, because these are commercially very important chemicals. Phenol, cresylic acids, and cresols are used for making phenol-formaldehyde resins and tricesyl phosphates. Phenol, alkylphenol, and polyphenols are important raw materials for a wide variety of organic compounds, dyes, pharmaceuticals, plastizers, antioxidants, etc. Phenols are also present in effluents from coke ovens, blast furnaces, and shale oil processing [1]. 

For contractual reasons the program was divided into three phases. During Phase I, the proposed shale oil processing scheme was tested and developed in appropriate pilot plants. Phase II constituted engineering preparation and the actual refinery run. Post run analysis and report writing were completed in Phase III. 

Figure 1. Shale oil processing block-flow diagram...

ORIGIN/INDUSTRY SOURCES/USES from petroleum refining, shale oil processing, coal tar distilling, combustion of tobacco used to manufacture dyes, plastics insecticides and fungicide manufacturing constituent in asphalt... 

More generally, there has been a significant renewal of interest in the use of Uquid salt as a coolant for nuclear and nonnuclear applications. These salts could facilitate heat transfer for nuclear hydrogen production concepts, concentrated solar electricity generation, oil refineries, and shale oil processing facilities, among other applications. 

Temperature and Product Yields. Most oil shale retorting processes are carried out at ca 480°C to maximize liquid product yield. The effect of increasing retort temperature on product type from 480 to 870°C has been studied using an entrained bed retort (17). The oil yield decreased and the retort gas increased with increased retorting temperature the oil became more aromatic as temperature increased, and maximum yields of olefinic gases occurred at about 760°C. Effects of retorting temperatures on a distillate fraction (to 300°C) are given in Table 6. 

PETROSIX. The PETROSIX technology is operated in the IH mode using hot recycle gas as the heat-transport medium. The PETROSIX retort has only one level of heat input, uses countercurrent flows, and uses a circular grate to control the flow of soflds (Eig. 3). The PETROSIX has been operated by Petrobras (Brazil) since the 1950s and is one of the few retorting processes producing shale oil in 1995. 

UNISHALE B. The UNISHALE process, like the Paraho process, uses lump feed and countercurrent flows, and can be operated ia either the DH or IH mode. The UNISHALE B process is an IH process that uses hot recycled gas as the heat-transport medium (Fig. 6). The unique feature of the UNISHALE processes is the rock pump. The soflds move upward through the retort as the vapors are moving downward. The rock pump was used ia the UNISHALE technology at Parachute, Colorado to produce more than 0.64 x 10 m (four million battels) of cmde shale oil. Operations were shut down in 1991. 

The primary difference in shale oils produced by different processing methods is in boiling point distribution. Rate of heating, as well as temperature level and duration of product exposure to high temperature, affect product type and yield (28). Gas combustion processes tend to yield slightly heavier hquid products because of combustion of the lighter, ie, naphtha, fractions. 

Table 11. Properties of Shale Oil during the Unocal Upgrading Process ...

The commercial production of shale oil as an alternative energy source has not been economically feasible. As of 1995, all commercial oil shale operations in the world (Petrobras, Bra2il PAMA, Israel The Chinese Petroleum Corporation, Fushun and Maoming, China KivioH Oil Shale Processing Plant, Kohda-Jarve, Estonia) receive some sort of economic incentives or assistance from the countries in which they are operating. 

A circulating fluidized-bed boiler, using raw shale oil as a feedstock, is being used to supply process heat for the phosphate operations and to operate a 100-MW power plant. Scale-up in the 1990s should increase the electric power generation to 1000 MW (71). 

The current research objective is to evaluate the surface activity of the subfractions obtained from the solvent fractionated crude oil and shale oil samples as they are passed through the separation process developed for this work. The columns used are anion exchange resin,... 

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