Oil-Shale Processing

Abstract

Abstract A progress report on the oil-shale and shale-oil processing research programat the U.S. Bureau of Mines Oil-Shale Demonstration Plant. Legislationproviding for the program and aims are briefly noted. The remoteness and ruggednature of the terrain at the plant site are important factors in constructionand operations. Large-scale units now in operation are the crushing plant andtwo 40-ton N-T-U retorts. These are described in detail. Under construction areseveral retorting pilot plants and a 200 bbl per day refinery. The refineryincorporates several types of thermal operation, three-stage low-temperatureacid treating, doctor sweetening, and rerunning. Data are presented on typical N-T-U retort runs. Yields of 90 to 100 pct ofassay are realized on 30 gal to the ton shale with a retort cycle time of 18hr. Data also are presented showing a comparison of a Mid-Continent petroleumand N-T-U shale oil. This comparison indicates that shale oil has a high pourpoint, low API gravity, and contains about 0.8 pct sulphur and 2 pct nitrogen.The naphtha fraction contains 3 pct tar acids, 9 pct tar bases and 50 pctolefins. The problems involved in refining shale oil into usable products arcdiscussed in detail. Introduction The Bureau of Mines oil-shale program now under way at Rifle, Colo., wasbegun in July 1944 under the provisions of the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act, which was passed in the spring of that year under the sponsorship of SenatorJoseph C. O'Mahoney of Wyoming and Congressman Jennings Randolph of WestVirginia, aided by Michael W. Straus, former Assistant Secretary of theInterior, and others. The oil-shale plant is only a part of the Office ofSynthetic Liquid Fuels, Bureau of Mines, which has under way projects todevelop synthetic liquid fuels from coal and other solid materials atPittsburgh and Bruceton, Pa., Morgantown, W. Va., Louisiana, Mo., as well asthe Petroleum and Oil-Shale Experiment Station at Laramie, Wyo., and theoil-shale demonstration plant at Rif1e. The oil-shale program is entirely experimental. It is not intended that oilwill be produced in great quantities. Production will be limited to the volumeobtained from plant-scale experimental operations, which will be kept to theminimum size needed to develop techniques and processes and to demonstratecosts. After the passage of the enabling act in the summer of 1944 a survey of theoil-shale resources of the Nation was made to determine the most suitable general area inwhich to establish the demonstration plant. The most suitable area was found tobe in the Rifle-De Beque area in Garfield County, western Colorado. T.P. 2360