As part of an on-going investigation into the processing characteristics of Australian tertiary oil shales, detailed reactor models have been developed to describe the retorting of raw shale and the combustion of spent shales in fluidized beds. These models take into account the dynamics of fluidization and the relevant reaction kinetics, and allow for the mixing of solid streams and the significant increase in the volumetric flow of gas which can occur due to the evolution of product vapours and gases during the retorting of oil shales. The models are being used not only in process variable studies of full scale plants, but also to test the generality of kinetic data obtained from other studies within the oil shale programme. The reactions considered in the retort model include the pyrolysis of oil shale kerogen, and the coking and thermal cracking of oil vapour, while for the combustor, the combustion of residual char is considered. This paper reports how experimental work performed in 150 mm diameter process development units for pyrolysis and combustion is being used to assess the reliability of these kinetic data for scale-up purposes.