Oil-shale technology in the USA

Edward W. Cook*

Rocky Flats Research Centre, The Oil Shale Corporatian, Golden, Colorado, USA
(Received 4 April 1974)

A review of current problems and prospects.

Oil shale may be defined as fine-grained sedimentary rock petroleum oil than a coal tar. This shale oil is produced by
containing between 5 and, 65% of organic material which, simply providing thermal energy to cleave enough bonds in
on pyrolysis, yields a substantial portion of oil. The the kerogen framework to allow the fragments produced to
inorganic material may range in size from colloidal to silt be volatil2ed and later condense as oil. Both excessive
and usually consists predominantly of clay and siliceous ternperatures and residence times are undesirable, as they
detritus intermixed with considerable carbonate minerals. can cause considerable coking and gasification. Extensive
The organic matter is usually aliphatic or alicyclic and studies have shown that a temperature of about 500"C is
may consist of significant quantities of soluble bitumen, but optimum, although iess is known about the desirable
invariably the principal organic material is an intricately residence times except that they should be quite short
-
polymerized substance called kerogen (rcepos-wax, cf. certainly in the region of a few minutes.
kerosene) which forms the infrastructure of oil shale.
Like most natural organic deposits, oil shales have been
formed in many different ways from many different sources. METHODS OF RETORTING SHALE
Unlike most other organic deposits, oil shales contain a high
proportion of mineral matter; in fact, the organic content of It has been long established that an efficient retorting
many commercially interesting shales is less than 20%, process is one which allows a minimum exposure of oil
extraordinarily low considering that it must be pyrolysed to vapours to retorting temperatures. For example, an o1d and
produce any oil. little-known test for shale richness is the Lessing assay. In
Oil-shale deposits occur on every major land area of the the Lessing test a I g sample is heated in a silica retort for
world and, indeed, have been commercially exploited in 7 min at 950"C. Despite the very high temperature, oil
many countries since before the industrial revolution. yields from the Lessing assay are often significantly higher
While the earliest (pre-nineteenth century) products were than from the Gray-King low-temperature assay with its
usually prepared from sulphurous shales and employed for larger sample and smaller heating ratel. (The Gray King
their supposed medicinal properties, a substantial shale-oil assay typically produces slightly more gas and less oil than
industry developed in the nineteenth century to challenge the Fischer-Schrader method. Also, the oil has a smaller
whale oil as an illuminant only to be replaced eventually by specific gravity, probably owing to secondary cracking in the
petroleum following Drake's American discoveries. Except Gray-King method;thus the Gray-King assay produces the
for a lengthy respite induced by the War in the 1940s, the higher volumetric yield, whilst the Fischer-Schrader assay
shale-oil industry has since slowly withered. gives the higlrer gravimetric yield. This topic has been
Aithough the world's oil-shale deposits are both vast and recently reviewed2.)
numerous, many are either too small or too lean to warrant During the very long history of oil-shale development
modern development. Several though are very substantial countless retort designs have been proposed and very often
and rich: two of the largest are also seats of established and tried, but they may be separated into two broad categories:
large industries, Estonia and Manchuria. In a third,Brazll,a
(1) those which mine and then retort the shale and (?) those
shale-oil industry is planned. But, for one of the largest which retort it in place (in situ). (Conspectus, Table 1.)
oil-shale deposits, no industry has yet developed: the Green
River Formation in the Western United States. On a com-
parative basis the Estonian deposits are about ten times as RETORTING MINED SHALE
large as the Manchurian, while the Piceance basin - only
one of three major basins in the Green River Formation - is
Retorts for mined shale may again be grouped into two
broad categories: (1) externally heated and (2) internally
in turn about eighty times as large as the Estonian deposits.
And it is probably also twice the size of the Brazilian Irati
heated. Historically, externally-heated horizontal retortS
appeared first. They were not continuous, heating was slow,
shale deposits. All of these are very approximate estimates.
residence time was long, and thermal efficiencies were rather
Although oil shale has occasionally been used directly as a
poor. Vertical retorts were then designed to provide at least
solid fuel, for example on a small scale in Dorset, England
for home heating, or on a larger scale for power generation some continuous operation; important versions included
Young's and the Pumpherston design3. However, externally-
in Estonia, it is the particular property of oil shale of
producing liquid products upon pyrolysis that attracts heated retorts are all technically outmoded, primarily
because of their poor heat-transfer characteristics.
attention. These products more nearly resemble a cracked
One reason for the slow heating rates observed with the
* Present address: Chemical Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1, externally heated retorts is that shale has very low thermal
UK conductivity, rougtrly similar to that of firebrick, and heating

146 FUEL, 1974, Vol.53, July

 E. W. Cook: Oil-shale technology in the USA
Table 1 Conspectus of oil-shale retorting technology

TEXTERNALLY HEATED
l(Equity)
I
IN PLACE
-
L,*ra**o.,-y HEATED
(U-S. Bureau Mines,
Garrett)

-ar"-rl
EXTERNALLY HEATED INTERNAI-LY HEATED GAS
(Young, Pumpherston) (NTU, Union)

M NED--I GAS HEATED--SPUlCes

INTERNALLy HEATED ASH EXTERNALLY HEATED GAS
(UTT) ( Royster. Petrosix)
---t L SOLID HEATED

FOREIGN MINERAL
(TOSCO,
Lurgi-Ruh rgas)

of shale must be very slow if severe overheating is to be retort with a piston (rock pump). Developmental work
avoided. Heating requires hours - or the layer to be heated ceased in 1958, although Union have recently announced
must be very thin, as with the rotating-hearth retort for their intention to build a commercial plantlo. A simpler,
shale fines described by Ab-der-Haldena, which was em- top-fed, continuous version of the .NTU retort has been
ployed on Aumance shale at Allier in France. developed by the National Carbonising Co. in England for
Obviously, this difficulty is largely overcome if heating production of smokeless fuels from coal: the Rexco
can be done within the retort and there is no scarcity of Improved Continuous (RIC) process. It has operated
designs with this objective. Internally-heated retorts fall commercially since 19671r; their experiences may be of
into two groups: those which supply heat by controlled interest in the American situation. Also within this general
combustion within the retort and those which introduce a framework is the U.S. Bureau of Mines gas combustion
heat carrier into the retort along with the shale. The heat process, a gravity-fed Spiilgas retort which burns retorted
carrier may be gas the Spiilgas concept; or solids - shale and a portion of pyrolysis vapours for heat. Experi-
pebbles in the TOSCO II processs or ash in the Soviet mental work on this process was discontinued in 1968.
UTT system6. Although liquid heat carriers have been used Another variation of the Sprilgas concept attempts to
in the past, as in the molten-lead bath of the Thermal Indu- prevent some of the oil loss by heating the recycled gas
strial Research Co. (TIR) process?, liquids have not been outside the retort. The Royster retort was one such design;
seriously considered in any recent shale processes; shale it was a vertical, batch retort quite similar to the NTU
has been spared the molten-salt schemes for coal pyrolysis. retort but the recycle gas was heated in a pebble bed before
While many early retort designs were of the simpler static introduction into the retort.
batch type, modern requirements demand continuous pro- A more modern continuous design is the Petrosix retort
cesses and all recent proposals are of continuous design. developed by the Petrobrds organization for use on kati
shale in Brazlltz. It is a continuous vertical gravity-fed
retort into which preheated gas is recycled. An additional
Gas-heated retorts advantage claimed for this design is that by not burning
Of the internally-heated retorts, those which required retorted shale, clinkering problems are avoided. This would
controlled combustion are among the oldest and most be of less importance for Green River shale with'its high
primitive. In a typical configuration, the retorted shale was ash-fusion temperature.
ignited and the hot flue gases forced through to the cooler More recently, Paraho have announced plans to develop
raw shale for retorting. The volatilDed oil was carried out of vertical gravity-fed retorts in which heat may be supplied
the retort by the flue gas and subsequently stripped from either by retorted-shale combustion within th€ retort or
the gas, although some oil vapourS inevitably condensed on by preheating. The pilot retorts will have a diameter of
the cooler shale and coked. An obvious refinement is both about 8'5 ft* and a height of about 45 ft; roughly the size
to conserve heat and save oil vapour by recirculating the of older commercial vertical retorts. The retorts will be
scrubbed flue gas into the retort: the Sptilgas concept. Many designed to facilitate heat transfer from the hot gases by
different versions on the Sprilgas principle were designed borrowing technology developed for cement kilns. Paraho
and they probably typified the state of oil-shale technology are just starting development of the retort, which is expected
throughthe 1950s. The last Spdlgas oil-shale plant designed to require several years.
by Lurgi was built in the former Belgian Congo in 1956.
Two American examples are the NTU retort8 and the Union
retorte. D isad van lage s of gas-heated retort s
The NTU retort suffered from the obvious disadvantage Historically, vertical retorts employing some form of gas
of being a static system; the similar Union retort is a con-
tinuous design which rams shale into the bottom of the x 1ft=305mm

FUEL, 1974, Vol.53, July 147

Oil-shale trchnology in the USA: E. W. Cook

heating have been the most widely studied and tested of the may be expected to be considerably easier to condense than
different retorting designs; and with good reason. It is a coal tar. Certainly, a re-examination of fluid-bed retorting
simple, conservative design which works well and provides of oil shale is long overdue, particularly for those designs
good yields. However, in some ways the gas-heated retorts which could minimize vapour dilution by using indirect
must be considered technically outmoded. Besides the heating.
obvious problems caused by long retention times because
of the inadequate heat capacity of gases, there is also the
modern problem of scale of operation, which is today much Dir e t e d re t ort s
c t-s olid-h ea
larger than when this retorting concept was at the zenith of If
retorting technology is to offer realistic throughput
its development. levels, then heat transfer must be very rapid and intense.
As previously discussed, an efficient retorting process is This is best achieved with solid heat carriers in an efficient
one which allows a minimum exposure of oil vapours to mixing system. The heat carriers may be either foreign
retorting temperatures. Some old designs even provided for material or shale ash; the former system is technologically
steam scrubbing in the retort to help in reducing this prob- simpler. It is exemplified by the TOSCO II process where
lem. Gas, with its low heat capacity and consequently low hot ceramic pebbles and preheated shale are mixed in an
throughput, always suffers in this regard as a retorting inclined rotary retort. The pebbles are subsequently
medium. Attempts at scale-up only exacerbate the problem. separated from the retorted shale, reheated, and recycled.
The difficulty of scaling up gas-solid systems in a fixed bed Shale residence time is measured in minutes rather than
is quite challenging: channelling and erratic laminar flow are hours, throughput is very high, and the design has good
muchmore serious in larger systems. Also, in large-diameter thermal efficiency. Development on the design has progres-
systems, gas diffusion tangential to the main flow becomes sed for some years and it is expected that a 60 000 ton/day
a significant disruptive influence. Indeed, these problems commercial plant will soon be built in Colorado. It is the
will tend to grow with the square of the retort diameter only process presently ready for large-scale development in
and it is doubtful whether retorts can be built much larger America.
than the present size of about 10 ft diameter without con- This process, in common with several others, leaves an
siderable engineering ingenuity. A well-known failure in organic residue on the retorted shale. This organic residue
chernical engineering may be germane: gas chromatography. is coke-1ike and may be thought of as coming from the
Almost from the invention of gas chromatography, it was fraction of kerogen that produces no oil. Considerable
realized that it could be an extremely powerful process interest has been shown in similar organic matter recently:
tool on a large scale. But this was not to be, and not for Soviet workers have reported plant growth promoters in
want of attempt. Severe flow problems occurred in attempts Estonian retorted shale; similar growth regulators have been
to increase column diameters from 3 mm to I m, quite found in peat. Indeed, there is also interest in the organic
apart from surface effects. Indeed, scale-up to only 30 mm material arising from peat smoke or 'reek' as these com-
has proved severe enough to compromise attempts at pounds, predominantly phenolics and condensed aromatics,
employing gas chromatography as anything but an analytical are responsible for the characteristic flavour of Scotch
tool. Many of the problems which proved insurmountable whiskyla It is possible that similar organic compounds
in scaling up gas chromatography are common to gas-heated may also be found in Green River retorted shale, but they
retorts, as both require uniform gas flow through close- may well be destroyed by normal soil microbial activity
packed solids. Conriequently, these types of retorts may after deposition. Current research at Denver Research
offer little toward the capacities demanded by modern Institute is expected to clarify this point.
technology. Certainly, results of the Paraho programme No matter the condition or possible value of retorted
will command much interest. shale from a commercial operation, its disposal presents a
Yet another problem confronts most retort designs of serious problem because of the size of operation. Environ-
this type: by scavenging with flue gas, the vapours leaving mental concern has put a number of questions, the answers
the retort are greatly diluted with inert gas. The practical to which are not difficult technically but require responsible
problem of recovering hydrocarbons from this gas is not management. Detailed studies now in progress are expected
often adequately considered during development work. One to define the requirements necessary to ensure safe disposal.
example will suffice: fluid-bed retorting is an interesting Another solid-heat-carrier retorting concept envisages
concept for shale-oil production because it avoids many of the use of hot shale ash. In theory, there are several advan-
the objectionsto gas-heated retorts. It does,however. require tages with shale ash: first, the organic residue on the spent
more gas (to maintain fluidization) than a fixed bed. In shale is burned to heat the ash; second, there is somewhat
Britain, the National Coal Board have developed a fluid-bed greater util2ation of waste heat contained in the spent shale
retort for low-temperature carbonization of coal for manu- because it is recycled; third, depending on the mineral
facture of 'smokeless fuel'13. Except for plant size composition of the shale and on the operating conditions, a
smokeless fuel is a low-volume premium fuel - this tech- significant quantity of sulphur which would normally be
nolory could be applicable to oil shale and indeed the U.S. present in the products may be sorbed by the shale ash.
Bureau of Mines considered fluidized beds for shale-oil Because ash particles can be quite small, it is also possible
production 25 years ago even though fluid-bed technology to investigate retort designs which permit more intensive
was then prirnitive. The economic operation of the British mixing and heat flow.
Bronowski retorts depends in part on the recovery of tar It is necessary for this retorting concept to examine
produced in the retorting. Unfortunately, its recovery from intimately the nature, and even the physical strength, of
the commercial plants has been elusive and the process has shale, retorted shale, and shale ash. Although shale has been
suffered as a consequcnce. The large-scale recovery of employed directly as a fuel in some parts of the world, most
hydrocarbons from large volumes of inert gases is never notably in Estonia, such use has not been seriously con-
an easy engineering task. Of course, there are designs sidered with Green River oil shale. And for good reason:
which can minimize this difficulty and shale-oil vapours with an organic content of about 20%, a typical Green

148 FUEL, 1974, Vol.53, July

 E. W. Cook: Oil-shale technology in the USA

River shale has heating value of only about 3000 Btu/

a gross burned, and thus lost. If so, this would pose a serious
1b*. Retorted shale has only 6% organic matter or about complication for ash-heated schemes.
one quarter of that in raw shale. Accurate analyses of the Considerable developmental work has been done on the
organic content of retorted shale are not available because UTT system, but much of it is not applicable to Green
it represents such a small fraction of the shale;however the River shale because the shales are quite different. Further-
best estimates indicate that retorted shale contains 5% more, this system mixes hot ash and shale in a rotating drum
organic carbon, 0'3%hydrogen, probably all organic,0'3% and does not fully explore the possibilities for more inten-
nitrogen, also probably organic, and0'6% sulphur, possibly. sive miing that a hot solid such as shale ash would offer.
mainly inorganic. On an ash-free basis, retorted shale has a Nevertheless, the disappointing yields obtained by Soviet
very high nitrogen and sulphur content: probably more workers from ash and the friable nature of Green River shale
than 5% of each. Furthermore, retorted shale, unless means that shale-ash heating is probably not attractive for
previously subjected to unusually high temperatures, con- Green River shale.
tains considerable amounts of undecomposed carbonates An alternative is to circulate another solid heat carrier
(shale retorted at c. 500"C contains about 6 mol (CO3)z-/kg which can be heated with the retorted shale and then
or about 26 wt % of (CO3)2-, although this depends upon separated from the shale ash outside the retort. As the
retorting conditions, particularly residence time). This ceramic pebbles of the TOSCO process would be too large
carbonate, mostly calcite, has a strongly endothermic heat in this instance, an obvious alternative is sand. Sand solves
of decomposition which should be avoided as a wasteful some problems, creates others, while others remain un-
heat loss, even thouglr there may be some sulphur sorption by changed. The difficulty of burning retorted shale remains
the oxides produced. In other words, the problem is to and is complicated by dilution with an additional inert,
burn - on a large scale, say at least 50 000 ton/day - an sand. Mechanically, the process is more complex, as the
extraordinary lean, but high-sulphur and high-nitrogen fuel sand and ash must be separated while hot and without
under exacting conditions; to avoid on the one hand exces- unnecessary heat losses. Interesting studies have been dis-
sive carbonate decomposition and on the other excessive closed independently by Schmalfeld ei all6 and Rammlerr?
use of combustion air with the resultant heat losses. The and by Barney and Carlsonlu. Other materials, such as
problem is similar, but on a larger scale, to that of the catalytic cracking catalyst, have been proposed but not yet
combustion of colliery wastes being investigated in Europe adequately investigated.
by such groups as those at Combustion Systems Ltd. Both of the disclosed sand processes take advantage of
Obviously, the ash-heated retort is technologically, if not efficient and intensive mixing and heat transfer, although
mechanically, somewhat more difficult than the pebble- additional study is wanted. It is possible that excessive
heated retort and it is not surprising that its development attrition can occur because of the intensive mechanical
lags several years behind, even without allowing for several mixing, especially in the Lurgi design. Solid-solid heat
further basic difficulties. transfer is a new method in the history of oil-shale techno
In addition to combustion behaviour, physical properties logy;retortingmay be achieved in minutes rather than hours.
such as the strength and surface area of retorted shale and This is important, not only because throughput is increased
shale ash are important and can have serious consequences as typified by the TOSCO system, but because yields are
for ash utilization. Moreover, these properties are incon- also increased: coking is minimized within the short residence
sistent from shale to shale, even within the same deposit. time in the retort. Furthermore, the possibility of shorten-
Most Green River shale, for example, tends to disintegrate ing heating times eventually to seconds and employing
easily and would produce a troublesome, pulverized ash. higher temperatures followed by rapid quenching uniquely
As an additional complication, this physical strength is exists with solid heat-transfer media. In America, Garrett
partly dependent on the strale richness, richer shales tending Engineering have initiated related work using coal with this
to be more friable. goal. Already,25 yearc ago, the U.S. Bureau of Mines were
Shale ash as a heating medium was first seriously studied able to obtain nearly 500 ft3 * of ethylene from a ton of
for Green River shale by the U.S. Bureau of Mines over 25 shale by flash-retorfing at 800"C1s. Present technology
years ago with theirHeat-Solids-ContactProcessls. In the should be able to improve considerably on this. It is
scheme, retorted shale was burned in a gravity-fed vertical possible that the advantage of higlr-temperature rapid heat
oven and the shale ash gravity-fed into a standpipe and transfer with sand may lie more with petrochemical applica-
mixed with shale. The mixture then descended into another tions for chemical synthesis than with fuel production, but
vertical retort. The process did not appear to examine more research is needed. One obvious disadvantage of this
adequately the possibility of rapid, intensive mixing. It is approach is the remoteness of the oil-shale deposits from
no longer considered. chemical markets, although the continuing demographic
Soviet workers have developed an ash-heated retort: the shift to the American Southwest is now bringing large
UTT series6. In this system, retorted shale is burned in a population centres within reach.
fluidized bed under near-stoichiometric conditions and the
hot shale ash is screw-fed into a horizontal drum retort
along with raw shale. Retorting conditions are adjusted by RETORTING IN PLACE
regulating the fraction of hot ash returned to the retort.
The largest ietorts process 500 t/day. Oil yields reported Technology for retorting oi1 shale in place, or in situ, may
for the UTT retort appear to be less than 15% of those be divided into two concepts: (l) the objective and (2) how
expected from assay; disappointingly 1ow for a sophisticated to achieve it. For example, the objective of in situ coal
process, although this does not consider the perhaps gasification is generation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
considerable gases produced during retorting It is quite This may be achieved by incomplete combustion and would
possible that heavy oil condenses on the retorted shale, is involve whatever preparation of the deposit is necessary for
* 1 Btu/lb = 2.326 kl lks * 1 ft3 = 0.0283 m3

FUEL, 1974, Vol.53, JulY 149

 l-
Oil-shale technology in the USA: E. W. Cook

satisfactory combustion including perhaps fracturing to underground chimney into which shale rubble would
ensure suffi cient permeability. presumably fall and which could be ignited and retorted.
For oil shale, both aspects of the problem are formidable. The plan is an extreme one and obviously premature.
First, the objective: one way of viewing this is to consider More conventional fracturing techniques are now being
the necessary size of the thermodynamic window. For
secondary oil recovery from conventional petroleum deposits
investigated
-by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Laramie,
Wyoming21,22 along with a programme to simulate under-
by fire flooding, the window is quite large; only tempera- ground retorting with a large, static retort. Early tests
tures high enough to liquefy the oil are necessary. Coal produced barely enough oil to run the equipment.
gasification also has a large window; although higher Another very interesting ap-proach is currently being
temperatures are needed, only partial combustion is neces- studied by Garrett Engineering23, several early results from
sary. However, the objective for oil shale is retorting to which have been announced by Dr Hammer of Occidental
liquid products. Temperatures must be accurately controlled; Petroleum, the Parent Organization2a. This scheme, which
a range of only about 200"C is useful from about 450 to perhaps comes closest to utilizing existent technology, first
-
650'C - although the optimum range for liquid production, mines shale in conventional room-and-pillar manner and then
=50-C,indicatedavery small window. Moreover, the short- collapses the roof to create a rubble chamber. From borings
comings of gas-heated retorts are magnified in situ: excessive into the chamber, the top of the rubble is ignited and retort-
coking and gas formation are constant worries; any technique ing continued within the Sprilgas concept by withdrawing
which supplies heat by burning shale in place has the flue gases to the surface, cooling, scrubbing, and returning
additional complication of controlling temperatures in a to the formation. According to disclosures, less than 25%
(nearly) static system. Some oil-recovery methods allow of the shale is mined, which is also the desired pore volume
the strale oil to drain to a pocket from which it can be in the rubble. Presumably larger amounts can be mined, if
pumped. Unfortunately, the pour point of Green River the roofs ean be collapsed to the desired rubble state.
strale oil, which depends somewhat on retorting conditions, Conventional mining for surface retorting removes about
can be as high as 90"F*; this could be troublesome. Above- 60% of shale and the Garrett in situ process would appear
ground recovery of diluted vapours and mists could be much to be a promising means for secondary recovery from
more troublesome than those experienced in the Sprilgas exhausted shale mines; however this state is twenty
retorts. The Equity Oil Co. scheme hoped to avoid this by or thirty years distant, even if the associated problems are
recirculating hot methanele, although present trends in soon solved. Obviously, this secondary application is limited
energy prices penalize schemes using natural gas. solely to those deposits which are mineable and so fails one
In order to determine how to retort shale in place, it is objective of retorting in place.
necessary to examine some physical properties of shale: Over thirty yeius ago, very similar German studies
permeability, porosity, and thermal conductivity. Suc- attempted to retort quite lean shale at Schorzingen by
cincfly, all are quite unfavourable, and even tend to be firing a rubble chamber created from mined sections. The
poorer with richer shale; the thermal conductivity of shale results were disappointing.
producing 40 gal/tont is only half that which yields 15 ea[
ton shale, and this is already poor.
Even poor shales are practically non-porous and im- ALTERNATIVE USES OF OIL SHALE
permeable. And those properties favourable Io in situ
retorting have shortcomings. The compressive strength of In addition to the possibility of chemical production, such
shale, an important c.onsideration for any scheme using an as ethylene synthesis from oil shale, the possibility of
underground cavern, is very high, about twice that ofhigh- employing shale directly as a fuel has not been adequately
strength concrete, far exceeding the support capability considered. Again the remoteness from market is a distinct
requirements for large underground caverns. Additionally, disadvantage, as is the high mineral content of the shale.
shale permeability increases as retorting temperatures are Nevertheless some possibilities exist, such as power
neared. Unfortunately, plastic deformation, which is generation for the Southwest markets, either by direct
particularly severe.with rich shale, occurs after several hours combustion or gasification for a combined-cycle gas turbine.
at these high temperatures; permeability then drops to zero Shale has also been proposed as a feedstock for SNG
and the shale column collapses. production, although the technology is somewhat more
In another finding which can complicate in situ retorling complex, and thus less attractive, in this area.
schemes, Bae2o has reported that shale-oil yields drop
rapidly with increasing pressure. He found an exponential
loss of yield with increasing pressure: about a 50% decrease THE FUTURE
from atmospheric pressure to 500 lb/in2 t; nor is this
decrease solely due to the increased residence time of the Technology never, of course, marches in a well-ordered
oil vapour at high temperature. lockstep, but meanders erratically along a broad front. It is
Many different fracturing techniques have been either nevertheless possible to see the direction along which the
proposed or tested for oil shale, to generate sufficient per- greatest progress may be expected. In oil-shale technology
meability for in situ retorting. Perhaps one measure of the thrust has always been towards rapid heat transfer and
the enormous difficulty of achieving this is that nuclear short retention times and generally this implies heat transfer
fracturing had been seriously proposed. In this scheme an through solid media. Because solid heat carriers have only
underground nuclear detonation would produce a high appeared recently in oil-shale technology, considerable
potential still exists to explore new methods for mixing
320C shale intensively with heat carriers. Indeed, this subject has
received little attention, yet offers the greatest promise
I US gal, short ton; 1 gal/ton = 4.172 litre/tonne
for significant advance in retorting technology. Within this
+ llblin2 (psi) = 6.trt kPa = 6.895 kN/m2 region of very rapid heat transfer lies the possibility of

150 FUEL, 1974, Vol.53, July

 E. W Cook: Oil-shale technology in the USA
substantially improved yields, radically different product 7 Wellington, S. N. and Cooper, W. R. 'Low Temperature
composition, and higher plant capacities from increased Carbonisation', Griffin, London, 1924, p 92
8 Kraemer, A. J. 'Oil shale and shale oil: a brief review of work
throughput. The most important advances in oil-shale by the United States Bureau of Mines' in 'Oil Shale and
technology probably lie here. Cannel Coal', Inst. Petroleum, London, 1938, p 235
Also future developments will attempt to utilize the 9 Berg, C. 'Retorting of oil shale' in 'Oil Shale and Cannel Coal',
residual carbon on retorted shales as a heat source; there are Vo1.2, Inst. Petroleum, London, 1951, pp 419-427
10 The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colorado), 29 December
still problems associated with burning retorted shale, though
1973,p I
they are not expected to be exceptionally difficult to solve. 11 Gibson, J. and Gregory, D. H. 'Carbonisation of Coal', Mills
On the other hand, retorting oil shale in place faces a and Boon, London, l97L,p 45
number of formidable problems, the solutions to which are t2 Bruni, C. E., Vasconcelos, D. and Padula, V. T. Wld Petroleum
not nearly in hand. It is unlikely that any major in situ Congr.197I,8 (4),13
13 Watson, W. R. Mining Engng 1968, 127 , 518
operation will occur in the near future unless there are 1,4 Macfarlane, C., Lee, J. B. and Evans, M. B. J. Inst. Brew.
unexpected changes in technology. t973, 79, 202
15 Cattell, R. A., Guthrie, B. and Schramm, L. W. 'Retorting
Colorado oil shale - a review of the work of the Bureau of
Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior', in 'Oil Shale and
Cannel Coal', Vo1.2, Inst. Petroleum, London, 1951, pp 345-
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FUEL, 1974, Vol.53, July 151