Utilization of Shale Oil as a Feedstock for Steam Pyrolysis and Petrochemical Intermediate Production. Final Report

摘要

The major objectives of this study were to determine the effects of prerefining on product yields for steam pyrolysis of a shale oil feed and to determine the suitability of shale oil as a petrochemical feedstock. The results of this research program have in general been highly successful. A bench scale pyrolysis reactor was designed and constructed which was used to obtain yield data for variable operating conditions in the range typically employed commercially. Two crude shale oils were used in this study, a Tosco II shale oil as an example of above ground retorting and simulated in-situ shale oil as an example of in-situ processing. Each crude oil was processed to four different levels of prerefining: vacuum distillation and hydrogenation of the vacuum distillate at three levels of severity. A total of 112 experimental runs have been performed on the 10 shale oil samples. An initial comparison of shale oil with petroleum feedstocks indicates that yields of all major gaseous components for shale oil feedstocks are comparable with yields for petroleum fractions with the exception of ethylene. Yields of ethylene are in general considerably higher for the shale oil feedstocks than for typical petroleum feedstocks. A tendency for severely hydrogenated samples to gasify is at present the major qualification to the potential advantages of using shale oil as a petrochemical feedstock. To more fully define the sutiability of shale oil and prerefined shale oil as petrochemical feedstocks more thorough investigation of the liquid products is essential. A preliminary kinetics model was developed which consists of a reaction of feed shale oil to primary products, with subsequent reaction of these products to secondary products. (ERA citation 06:010312)