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.