Use of High-Boiling Alcohols to Produce Shale Oil from Green River Shale

摘要

This report describes the results of experiments in which Green River shale was treated with mono-, di-, or trifunctional alcohols in an attempt to produce high oil yields under lower pressure treatment conditions. The experiment using 1,2-ethanediol (ethylene glycol) and water resulted in a yield of 81 weight percent based on recovered liquid organic matter, a yield equivalent ro 124% of Fischer assay. The experiments using other di- and trifunctional alcohols were not successful in recovering large amounts of oil from the shale. The 1, 2-ethanediol experiments suggests that it may be possible to recover oil from shale in yields much higher than those of conventional retorting precesses at pressures well below supercritical methanol-water. Solvents with boiling points up to 200C, such as n-octanol boiling at 194C and 1,2-ethanediol boiling at 198C, can be removed from liquid product using rotary evaporation under reduced pressure. Higher-boiling alcohols such as glycerin and diethylene glycol would probably not be satisfactory solvents even if recoveries were high because of complicated separation requirements. 10 refs., 1 tab. (ERA citation 11:008326)