Eastern oil shale retorting. I: pyrolysis of the Sunbury Shale of Kentucky. Final report

Retorting studies of Sunbury Shale from northeastern Kentucky have been carried out systematically and compared with earlier studies of Colorado oil shale. The Fischer assay method is used as a baseline model for evaluation of the retorting parameters. The effects of inert gas flow and of particle size variation when retorting Sunbury Shale are similar to effects observed in retorting Colorado shale. However, oil yield is very dependent on shale heat-up rate; its effect is much greater on Sunbury Shale than on western shale. Pyrite has a detrimental effect on the quantity of oil generated from Sunbury Shale, and a number of design parameters impact oil production. Fischer assay is not nearly as optimum a method for obtaining oil from the Sunbury Shale as it is for retorting Colorado shale. For this eastern oil shale, an assay employing 5 times the Fischer assay heating rate and a 1380F upper temperature (i.e., 100F/min to 1380F) results in a process yield that is 110-116%