Long-Time-Period, Low-Temperature Reactions of Green River Oil Shale

Reactions of water-washed chunks of a deeply buried Green River oil shale (2880–2920 ft, well below the water table) have been carried out in N2–H2O and CO–H2O for up to 28 days at temperatures in the range of 280–370 °C. Large variations in yields of liquid products were observed for reactions below 330–340 °C. These were attributed to varying mineralogy in the chunks because the variations disappeared for reactions of ground samples or reactions above 330–340 °C, at which point the chunks disintegrated. Liquid-product yields of up to 70 wt % dry mineral matter free could be obtained from the chunks at temperatures as low as 320 °C, provided that long reaction times of 14 or 28 days were used. In particular, at lower temperatures, yields were higher under N2 than under CO, but the quality of the CO–H2O petroleum or oil/gas products tended to be better than that of N2–H2O products. The liquid products contained 1–2 wt % nitrogen, were high in aliphatic material, and contained significant amounts of heavily substituted aromatic rings.