Producing hydrocarbons from oil shale based on conditions under which production of oil and bitumen are optimized

摘要

Kerogen in oil shale is converted to bitumen, oil, gases and coke via a retorting process. The vaporizable oil and gases are then recovered. Following the retorting process, bitumen is recovered via solvent extraction. The overall conversion process is enhanced by calculating conditions to optimize recovery of both oil and bitumen. This can be accomplished by either separately calculating conditions for which production of vaporizable oil and production of bitumen are optimized, or calculating conditions for which production of vaporizable oil and production of bitumen are optimized by applying a maximizing function to combined vaporizable oil and bitumen data. An advantage of this technique is that greater efficiency is achieved because the time duration of heating associated with the retorting process can be reduced and product yields increased.