Clay-Induced Oil Loss and Alkene Isomerization During Oil Shale Retorting

摘要

Oil shale from the Green River formation in Colorado was mixed with nearly an equal weight of clay and retorted under conditions similar to Fischer assay. The amount of oil collected decreased approximately 18% when the clay added was montmorillonite. The amout of oil lost was independent of the degree of dehydration of the clay, and the preence of this clay did not change the ratio of saturated to unsaturated linear hydrocarbons for mid to heavy oil fractions. When dehydrated kaolinite was added there was no significant loss of oil yield, but the oil produced showed a decrease by a factor of 2 in the ratio of 1-alkenes to n-alkanes. When partly dehydrated or raw kaolinite was used, the apparent loss of 1-alkenes was not as great. This ratio change is due to a migration of the double bond from the 1-alkene position to internal positions, according to NMR. This explanation for the ratio change is also suggested by the decrease in concentration of prist-1-ene with respect to prist-2-ene when retorting is done with shale premixed with kaolinite. 35 refs., 13 figs., 4 tabs. (ERA citation 13:017736)