Thermogravimetrically and differential scanning calorimetrically derived kinetics of oil shale pyrolysis

Thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (d.s.c.) were used to investigate the kinetics of non-isothermal pyrolysis of Aleksinac oil shale from Yugoslavia. The samples used included oil shale, demineralized oil shale and bitumen extracted from the original, as well as from the thermally treated oil shale. Kinetic parameters were determined by assuming a single first-order kinetic model, using the integral method for TG analysis, and ASTM procedure E-698 for d.s.c. analysis. The influence of cracking catalyst addition was examined with respect to the overall kinetics and to conversion in particular temperature regions. Higher values of kinetic parameters were obtained by d.s.c. analysis, and the reasons for the differences between those and the TG results are discussed.