Minor elements in oil shale and oil-shale products

Order of magnitude minor elemental analyses for several Green River Formation oil shales, shale oils, and retort waters are presented. The oil-shale analyses show a remarkable uniformity between Colorado Piceance Creek Basin Mahogany Zone and Saline Zone oil shales. Comparison with earlier data of other workers extends this uniformity to rich and lean Mahogany zone oil shales, to the Mahogany and R-4 zones of the Piceance Creek (Colorado) and Uinta (Utah) Basins. Crude shale oils and retort waters show variations in trace elements of up to 10/sup 4/ times even in products from nominally very similar retorting runs. Possible important variables are heterogeneity in the oil shale, differences in retorting processes, or external influences on the products after retorting. Variations in survey type analyses are shown to be larger than expected, but the survey analysis with only order of magnitude precision is shown useful in delineating potential problems. The expected gain from more precise analyses is shown to be with respect to differentiating the causes of product variability in oil shale retorting. 12 figures. (DLC)