Intrinsic Oxidation Kinetics of Rapidly Pyrolyzed Oil Shale

摘要

We have determined the combustion rates for residual organic carbon and sulfide minerals in Green River oil shale retorted rapidly so that results will be relevant for design of above-ground oil shale plants. Shale was retorted by dropping it into a pre-heated sand bed fluidized by inert gas and the rate of oxidation was tracked by measurements of the CO, CO sub 2 , and SO sub 2 exit-gas concentrations. The SO sub 2 is released by sulfide oxidation, and can react with carbonates in the shale releasing CO sub 2 . In order to determine the intrinsic kinetics of char combustion, we limited our measurements to temperatures between 380 and 480 sup 0 C where CO sub 2 came from char combustion alone. We found char produced by rapid pyrolysis was approximately 2.5 times more reactive than char produced under Fischer assay conditions and that the rate of combustion of sulfides is a little faster than char combustion. 10 refs., 5 figs.