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Natural Gas, Crude Oil, Heavy Crude Oil, Extra-Heavy Crude Oil, and Tar Sand Bitumen
Published in James G. Speight, Refinery Feedstocks, 2020
Thus, when properly processed, kerogen can be converted into a product somewhat similar to crude oil which is often better than the lowest grade of oil produced from conventional oil reservoirs but of lower quality than conventional light oil. Shale oil (retort oil) is the liquid oil condensed from the effluent in oil shale retorting and typically contains appreciable amounts of water and solids, as well as having an irrepressible tendency to form sediments. Oil shale is an inorganic, nonporous sedimentary marlstone rock containing various amounts of solid organic material (known as kerogen) that yields hydrocarbons, along with non-hydrocarbons, and a variety of solid products, when subjected to pyrolysis (a treatment that consists of heating the rock at high temperature) (Lee, 1990; Scouten, 1990; Speight, 2012b, 2020).
Other Feedstocks—Coal, Oil Shale, and Biomass
Published in James G. Speight, Handbook of Petrochemical Processes, 2019
In the mining-thermal processing option (ex situ production), oil shale is mined, crushed, and then subjected to thermal processing at the surface in an oil shale retort. Both pyrolysis and combustion have been used to treat oil shale in a surface retort. In the second option (in situ production), the shale is left in place and the retorting (e.g., heating) of the shale occurs in the ground. Generally, surface processing consists of three major steps: (i) oil shale mining and ore preparation, (ii) pyrolysis of oil shale to produce kerogen oil, and (iii) processing kerogen oil to produce refinery feedstock and high-value chemicals. For deeper, thicker deposits, not as amenable to surface or deep-mining methods, shale oil can be produced by in situ technology. In situ processes minimize, or in the case of true in situ, eliminate the need for mining and surface pyrolysis, by heating the resource in its natural depositional setting.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of using oil shale
Published in Vladimir Litvinenko, Innovation-Based Development of the Mineral Resources Sector: Challenges and Prospects, 2018
N.K. Kondrasheva, S.N. Saltykova, M.Yu. Nazarenko
Interest in oil shale is rising in parallel with the continuing growth of energy consumption, decrease in known accessible petroleum reserves, and increase in the sulfur and water content of petroleum. The processing of oil shale to produce electric power and chemicals has been adopted in Brazil, Estonia, the United States, China, and elsewhere (Xie, Xue, Wang, Lie, Rang, 2011; Raado, Rein, Hain, 2014; K�laots, Goldfarb, Suuberg, 2010; Strizhakova, Usova, 2008). Oil shale contains kerogen�that is, transformed organic matter from higher plants and simple organisms. They differ from coal in that they form a large quantity of tar on semi-coking (20 70)%, in terms of the organic component). After processing oil shale, a large quantity of spent oil shale ash (up to 50 wt% of oil shale ash); its storage consumes enormous areas (Wang, Bai, Ge, Wie, Li, 2014; Xie, Wang, Lin, Song, 2010). Oil shale also provides less energy, mass for mass, than other fossil fuels, including petroleum and natural gas. Nevertheless, interest in processing oil shale has risen sharply in the last decade. Researchers assert that effective industrial use of oil shale demands the use of not only the organic component but also the mineral component, so as to reduce the waste generation.
Utilization of grinding aids in oil shale milling
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2018
The growing shortage of traditional fossil fuels (i.e., coal, oil, and natural gas) has spurred the search for alternative sources of energy. In this sense, oil shale, a fine-grained impermeable sedimentary rock rich in organic substances, represents a major alternative oil resource with estimated reserves of 345 billion barrels located across 41 countries (primarily the United States, Brazil, Russia, Congo, Canada, Italy, China, Australia, and Estonia). Pyrolysis or retorting is the primary technology for converting oil shale into shale oil and shale gas. However, the technical limitations of this technology have hindered the extraction of oil from oil shale, resulting in high costs, low competitiveness, and slow exploitation in many countries. All these factors have severely hindered the development of the oil shale industry. At present, there is great interest in oil shale because of its huge reserves and potential comprehensive utilization.
Economic geology value of oil shale deposits: Ethiopia (Tigray) and Jordan
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2018
Yohannes Yihdego, Hilmi S. Salem, Bediaku G. Kafui, Zarko Veljkovic
The terms “oil shale” for the rock, and “shale oil” for the retorted product (also known as “Light Tight Oil” (LTO)) have been well-understood for more than one hundred years now. Both terms (oil shale and shale oil) have been consistently applied to the fine-grained, organic-rich sedimentary rock that contains solid organic matter, from which a liquid hydrocarbon (shale oil) can be extracted when the rock is heated in the chemical process of pyrolysis, either on the surface or at depth. Most of the organic matter in the source rock (oil shale) is in the form of kerogen, which is insoluble in ordinary organic solvents, and some of the organic matter in the source rock is bitumen that is soluble in organic solvents (Dyni 2003).
Investigation of parameters toward development of an empirical model for the pyrolysis of black oil-shale
Published in Petroleum Science and Technology, 2021
Emad A. M Abdelghani, Krishna Prasad Rajan, Abdelaziz A. Noaman, Ibrahim H. Ali
Extracting oil from oil-shale starts with transformation of the solid hydrocarbons present in the rock to a liquid form, to make it suitable for pumping and subsequent processing. Oil-shale can be mined by using underground mining techniques or by surface mining methods. Current method of oil-shale extraction starts with mining the oil-shale and subsequently subjecting it to treatment processes in processing facilities. Newly developed technologies help the processing of oil-shale at underground by controlled application of heat and pressure to underground followed by extraction of the oil through oil wells similar to that of crude oil. The retorting process follows the mining, in which the rocks are subjected to controlled heating to high temperatures in order to detach and collect the ensuing liquid. This chemical process is known as pyrolysis. In pyrolysis, the oil-shale is subjected to very high temperatures in the absence of oxygen to induce chemical changes in the shale. During this process kerogen present in the layers of shale liquefies to yield oil (Crawford et al. 2008). Investigations related to distillation were carried out by many researchers to extract oil and gas from oil-shale (Pettyjohn 1953). This technology is still in its early development stages. Direct combustion of oil-shale to generate steam required for producing the electric power is currently being developed, but advised only for small power stations (Jiang, Han, and Cui 2007). In a recent investigation, Raja et al simulated the fluidized bed retorting process of oil-shale to assess the quantitative and qualitative production of hydrogen, LPG, middle distillate, naphtha and fuel oil and various parameters affecting this process (Raja et al. 2017).