HIGH RANGE TEMPERATURE THERMAL DISMANTLING METHOD IN PROCESSING OIL SHALE

This invention consists of a new thermal dismantling method that enables reaching very high temperatures of 1000° C. for transforming any quality oil shale into directly refinable shale oil and to shale gas equal to natural gas, and as a by-product producing water and hot air, resulting in ash production where the ash is transformed into solid fuel by adding organic and non-organic additives and the residue of the burned solid fuel is used as raw material for other industrial products such as clinker, insulation material; by using its own solid fuel to raise and reach the high range temperature without the need to use any other type of fuel and without using water for the cooling system.

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Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a new thermal dismantling method that enables reaching very high temperatures of 1000° C. for transforming any quality oil shale into directly refinable shale oil and to shale gas equal to natural gas, and as a by-product producing water and hot air, resulting in ash production where the ash is transformed into solid fuel by adding organic and non-organic additives and the residue of the burned solid fuel is used as raw material for other industrial products such as clinker, insulation material; by using its own solid fuel to raise and reach the high range temperature without the need to use any other type of fuel and without using water for the cooling system

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Oil shale is one of the rocks in which organic prong is mixed with widely variant of non-organic metal prong.

This mixture contains a broad spectrum of mineral elements and it has the ability to generate all traditional sources of energy when treated by the present invention's thermal dismantling method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention's thermal dismantling method is based on separating 1) the volatile section; which consists of shale gas, shale oil and water, and 2) the remaining section, the non-volatile section, which is called ash. The ash is moved out of the furnace and taken to the cooling chambers. The cold ash is then mixed with the appropriate additive materials in specific rates to obtain the solid fuel. In this way, it can be claimed that the following equation is maintained in an economic criteria and environmental standards:


Oil shale=Solid Fuel+Crude oil+Natural Gas

One important point should be taken into consideration in the above equation which is the fact that the solid fuel's thermal content is much higher than the traditional solid fuel (coal) and much s better in terms of the environmental side effects.

This invention is intended to be used to process oil shale by using a new high range temperature thermal dismantling method, and then to produce even more products other than shale oil and shale gas such as a special type of ash (leading to solid fuel), water and hot air.

The technical field usage for the invention is then related to the field where these products are proposed to be used.

The Technical Fields for Using Shale Gas:

The shale gas extracted from oil shale through this thermal dismantling process, well matches natural gas, accordingly, it is used in all fields where natural gas is and could be used. Moreover, shale gas can be in dry or wet situations. Dry shale gas is used as a source to produce thermal energy, while wet gas is used in many petrochemical industries.

The Technical Field for Using Shale Oil:

The produced shale oil matches in chemical composition the oil of the Middle East, and can be immediately directed to the refineries for refining and separating its distillates to be used as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Moreover, the lubricating oils and lubricants for cars and various industrial vehicles; can be extracted as one of the distillates' products. On the other hand, the distillates can be separated and treated to obtain raw materials which are used for the production of plastic materials, fertilizers, medicines, dyes and pesticides.

The percentage of the aromatic materials that exist in the oil shale construction is regarded as the main criteria to evaluate the economic value of the oil shale products when used for the medical and petrochemical industries, i.e., the higher the aromatic materials percentage, the higher the economic value of the product.

Moreover, traditionally, food (potatoes-corn-wheat-rice-fat) is used for the production of several basic industrial materials such as, synthetic fatty acids, the production of synthetic alcohols, olefins production, the production of synthetic rubber, and synthetic fibre production; whereas, the shale oil could be used to produce the same products which would mean saving food sources as well.

The Technical Field for Using the Oil Shale Ash:

The present invention's oil shale ash is different in its structure and quality from the various types of global oil shale ash. The reason why this ash is different is basically because the global technologies depend on heating the oil shale at the temperature limit of 450° C. to 550° C., while the ash resulting from the treatment process technology adapted by this invention is subjected to tackle the oil shale in a much wider range of temperature which is 850° C. to 1000° C. In this regard of temperature, a large change in the chemical composition of the ash is occurred.

The ash resulting from the processing of oil shale is within the range of 56 to 86%. In this technique; this ash is mixed with suitable additives rate 10 to 30% of the ash weight; the resulting mixture is the solid fuel with the minimum heat content of 8000 kcal per kg, which needs an appropriate burning system to take full advantage of the high thermal energy stored in it.

The Fields where Solid Fuel can be Technically Used:

The solid fuel is regarded as a type of solid fuel with high thermal content and burning efficiency, which is within the acceptable environmental effects.

The solid fuel, which is produced as the last stage of the present invention's method when processing oil shale, could be used within its proper burning system for:

    • Desalination of sea water, which requires temperatures approaching 350° C. in order to be vaporized.
    • Textile industries that require temperatures approaching 450° C. for steam generation.
    • Electric power generation, which requires temperatures of 450° C. to 650° C. to generate and roast the steam used in rotating the electric generation turbine.
    • The cement industry which needs a wider range of temperatures ranging from 100° C. to 1450° C. for steaming, drying and combustion processes.
    • Glass industry needs greater amounts of heat and high temperatures that could reach up to 1850° C. in order to get high-quality glass products.
    • Mining industries that consume very large amounts of heat is accompanied by disastrous environmental effects on the climate. These industries are not available in the Middle East because furnaces that can meet the needs of these industries must be at least at a temperature of about 2000° C., which is achievable only under special conditions, and will always depend on the electric furnaces that are able to achieve specific goals.
      solid fuel, along with the appropriate burning system is regarded as a large thermal energy source and can be used to reach any desired temperatures that can go up to 3500° C.; and therefore creates opportunities needed for the establishment of mining industries which is not possible to achieve without using the solid fuel.

The Fields where the Residue of the Solid Fuel can be Technically Used:

The usage fields of the solid fuel residual are determined by the type of additives that is used to transform the oil shale ash into solid fuel. The additive materials together with the high combustion temperature, determine the chemical changes in the basic composition of the solid fuel which changes it to solid fuel residual that fits the desirable industry field such as the cement industry—road-paving materials industry—thermal insulation industry, building materials—soil stabilization and any industry in which the solid fuel residual would be a base or essential raw material.

In fact, after burning the solid fuel; the resulting solid fuel residual can almost be a final product; which is the ready clinker for cement industry. To be able to do so, proper and specific rates of additives should be mixed well with the oil shale ash when changing it to solid fuel. When using the solid fuel residual as clinker; it provides raw materials used in the cement industry and all industries related to it. Using the solid fuel residual as ready clinker, saves fuel consumption used in the drying and burning of the clinker raw materials, as well as saves amounts of electricity consumption necessary for the overall operations associated with the cement industry.

Based on above; when processing oil shale with the thermal dismantling principle, and then adding proper additives in specific rates to the resulting oil shale ash; a ready clinker is obtained without the need for the traditional clinker producing stages which require huge amounts of thermal and electrical energy. So, producing clinker in such a way does generate high thermal energy instead of using it together with other energy sources.

The Technical Fields for Using Water:

This invention is regarded as a technology that produces water when processing the oil shale rather than consuming it unlike all other present worldwide technologies.

The produced water can be purified and used in the field of agriculture.

The Technical Fields for Using Hot Air:

This new technology produces such huge amount of hot air with temperatures that can reach 400′C. The amount of hot air is unmeasured and can be used in domestic heating systems.

Background of Oil Shale

2.5 Introduction

After giving clear and general information about the oil shale field like the technical methods that are frequently used of oil shale treatment, the invention could be further introduced by showing the advantages and the solutions of the widely known problems of the specific field.

2.6 the Mechanism of the Oil Shale

Oil shale is considered as bounded and compacted layers of rocks with a sedimentary origin that contain organic matters. The organic matters were formed as a result of gathering all of the Alchenyat, algae and micro animals that used to live in shallow water, which were exposed to the impact of active bacteria in the sludge and mud, and then that undergone physical effects resulting in several transformations in the structure.

These transformations can be expressed as:

2.6.1 Degradation

2.6.2 Cracking

2.6.3 Solubility (Melting) and Formatting

2.6.4 Oil Shale Components

Oil shale consists of inorganic matters metallic mixed with different organic matters and metal items as shown in table 1 below:

TABLE 1 Oil shale components Inorganic Matters Chemical Organic Chemical metal Chemical Metallic Symbol matters symbol items symbol Carbonates CaCo3 Bitumen CxHy Vanadium v (Calcite, Ca dolomite) Mg(co3)nH2o Quartz Silesia Sio2 mixed hydrocarbon — Strontium Sr Flint — Kerogen CxHyO2 Iron Fe Clays — Complex — Rubidium Rb (Aallili, chlorite) hydrocarbons Berit FeS2 — — Uranium V Magnzi Mgco3 — — Titanium Ti Zinc Zn Barium Ba

2.7 Oil Shale

The oil shale can be considered as sedimentary rocks consist of wet soft kernels, where the moisture can be separated in terms of water. In addition, the oil shale consists of organic matters that can be extracted in terms of oil and gas simultaneously. The remainders of the oil shale consist of inorganic metallic matters that can be transformed into solid fuel by performing the proper processes that suit the purposes of use.

The general atmosphere for the oil shale shows that it is consisted of sediments located in shallow ponds or seas that are rich with Alchenyat (Albumin+hydrocarbons).

Accordingly, the oil shale contains a wide range from the organic and inorganic matters where the organic matters are derived from Alchenyat, algae, and organic detritus such as aquatic and terrestrial plants and aquatic and terrestrial animals, on the other hand, the inorganic matters contain Vhmafiah metallic matters such as carbonates (Calcite and Dolomite), in addition to debris materials such as Quarts and Wlosbat related to clays (Aallili and Chlorite).

2.7.1 Oil Shale Formation:

The main source for the organic matters in the oil shale is the Alchenyat (Hydrocarbons and Albumen) in addition to the plant residues, spores and the pollens that form Alashinah fat.

The Bacteria plays an important role in transforming the organic matters to kerogen. The decomposition of the organic matter generates the warm climate Bacteria which helps in the growth of floating and benthic Alachenyat.

When the floating and benthic Alachenyat die, it is then exposed to oxidation and disintegration because of the dissolved oxygen in water.

The alive creatures (alive materials, Hydrocarbons, and fat) are then affected by the Bacteria and the process of oxidative stress under the effect of the biochemical processes, with the absence of free oxygen and the present of the active Bacteria, resulting to changing in the structure of the raw organic matters which transform it to the kerogen.

The partial disintegration for the organic matters creates the metallic matters such as Quarts and clays, and the plant residues.

The Bacteria rule starts to be activated in the benthic alluvial silt with the absence of the oxygen, resulting to acquired medium (accepting electrons) which forms the organic matters and the Berit in alkaline conditions and highly acquired medium.

In the oxidized medium, the Phosphate centres and part from the Alcalat are formed, while in the mild oxidative stress and mild acquired medium, the Filadgoonit is formed.

The sea water is rich with Calcium ions Ca+2 in terms of bi-calcium carbonate that precipitates under the effect of Almtafeeat and Algdraminger. The effect of the Bacteria participates in forming the aggregate kerogen stone which is poor in organic matters.

The Alcheny silt is incompact and remains suspended between the water and the silt, however, in later stages, it turns to become compacted and solid because of the effect of the formed sediment and the increase in the sedimentation ponds' depth.

The resulting solid Alcheny silt gathers in saturated sediment layers with time, and rare materials in the accumulated sediment layers overlap under the effect of the physical conditions such as time, temperature, pressure and motion, and with the presence of chemical effects, that led to establishing an environment that achieves the principle of succession of life, which led to form the oil shale that produces the gas and oil.

The word petroleum means the oil of rocks, so, this leads to the relation between these words and how these words were formed. It is more important to know the structure of raw organic matters in petroleum and oil shale which is the main motivation to do more researches over the ray organic matters in the petroleum.

2.7.2 Raw Organic Matters in the Petroleum

Plants and animal's organic detritus (plankton and benthic materials) and Bacteria (germs) play an important role in collecting the organic matters and precipitating them under water, and in the disintegration of the vestigial creatures which is an inevitable stage to form the petroleum.

The terrestrial plants contain the Alljuginin while the aquatic plants do not contain it and it is rarely found in the structure of the benthic plants.


→H2o+Co2

Metallization does not occur in an environment that has Oxygen, while it partially disintegrated in the presence of Oxygen and in an environment that is poor in terms of having Oxygen resulting in aldepal acids.

2.7.3 Scientific Belief:

The Idjanindepal materials are transmitted by rivers to seas which is a source to generate the petroleum.

2.8 The Scientific Research

It is a matter of fact that the organic matters which reach to the seas in the shape of crumbs and colloidal turbid are sufficiently oxidized, and they consist of acid depal and pieces of oxidized plant tissues. These organic matters cannot be a suitable source for the hydrocarbons; however, it does act in an indirect way in the process of forming the petroleum, i.e., forming CH4, and Co2.

The acid depal is able to form such complicated compounds from the Alkanes that contain large molecules, and with the presence of the progressed Bernoadah hydrocarbons that play the role of the inter-mediator which transmits the compounds from the land surface to the seas.

The cellulose (C6H10O5)n is the most depal poly sugars stable that can be mineralized at the upper layer of the sediment located at the bottom and in airy medium to launch H2, CH4, Co2, and H2o.

At the absence of air medium when various fermentation processes occur; the micro creatures that feed on carbohydrates can make other components such as the Lipids which could be a source for the petroleum hydrocarbon.

The Bacteria digest the proteins that start the interacting with the water after the organisms atrophy in the absence of air medium resulting in full mineralization that gives H2o, Co2, NH3, H2S, H2, and CH4.

In the absence of air medium that arises from the silt which is located in the bottom, the disintegration becomes incomplete for the proteins and their compounds with other materials.

The resulting materials which appear during the condensation of amino acids with the carbohydrates, transform to depal materials that differ in the chemical structure from the acid depal that existed in the perjury (raw coal) and the coal.

The process of removing the amino from the amino acid leads to generate small molecules fatty acids. After removing the Carboxyl from these fatty acids, gaseous hydrocarbons are yielded.

Since sulphur and nitrogen compounds are encountered in the petroleum, this confirms the presence of proteins between the components of the petroleum.

The Lipid components belong to living matters that converge in their chemical composition and molecular building with some petroleum hydrocarbons.

Fats are the glycerine esters and the fatty acids chain of all kinds that are saturated and unsaturated, in addition to the Hydroxylated and Ketonah of the carbon chain C12→C20 with degree of saturation of various fatty acids in animal fats and vegetable fats of non-branched Aolivatih chain. Small amounts of branched fatty acids from the C9→C28 carbon chain were deduced from the bacteria and fatty tissues. Moreover, the large molecules β-Hydroxy acids with long substring in the situation a were deduced from the micro-organisms and fungi.

2.8.1 For Confirmation:

The Lipid in herbs and zooplankton is rich in unsaturated acids, which is characterized by containing 35% of the materials that are not capable of saponification; this percentage increases whenever the object is more primitive.

The waxy materials are mixtures of the uni-atoms esters alcohol materials and the uni-base organic acids. Moreover, the primary uni-atoms alcohols participate in the formation of the waxy materials C14→C34 that have ordinary structure with an even number of carbon atoms in the molecule.

The higher fatty acids are considered as uni-base saturated compounds with non-branched chain.

The steroids are considered as annular compounds with carbon structure that is composed of totally or partially hydrogenated derivatives for 1-2 Cyclo-penta-venantryn which are components of micro-living materials. The steroids are considered as the most common micro-living materials which contain saturated or unsaturated alcohols with annular structure such as Alchollsterolat Alargeosterol (C28H44O).

The resin acids are involved in consisting the Biomechanical outcomes of the land plants.

The amber resins, resin acids and the hydrocarbons which existed in the micro-living materials represent a significant proportion in the filtered material from the seawater, which consists of micro-plankton, fossilized dung and organic residues. These components are considered as a source for carotenoids of micro-organisms in the zooplankton which move to organic silt and sediment.

2.9 Transformations of the Organic Detritus:

Severe transformations occur over the organic matters of the vestigial organisms, the zooplankton and the phytoplankton in water and silt mediums that located in the bottom. Microbiological activity is accompanied by the disintegration of raw material and form bacterial biomass resulting to:

  • 5—The percentage of the protein compounds decreases by 100 to 200 times.
  • 6—The percentage of the free amino acids decreases by 10 to 20 times.
  • 7—The percentage of the carbohydrates decreases by 12 to 20 times.
  • 8—The percentage of the lipids decreases by 4 to 8 times.

Simultaneously, multiple condensation processes occur that are accompanied with a polymerization process for the unsaturated compounds, (which is the basic of the organic part of any kerogen). Moreover, the polymerization process for fatty acid, hydroxylated acids and the unsaturated compounds that leads to the transformation of condensation products into forms of non-soluble kerogen in both annular and non-annular form as well as into materials that bear a rotten floating part of the kerogen.

The process of polymerization of the most stable part from the lipids and the hydrocarbons form the soluble kerogen, which can be seen in the formed asphalt materials and resins.

2.10 Scientific Fact:

If the intensity of oxidative processes increase, the proportion of hydrogen in the kerogen will be decreased from the range of 8% to 10% to the range of 3% to 4% and a small percentage of it transforms to adsorbed form with rocks that consist complicated organic metal compounds. The oxidative process is associated with interaction with sulphur operations process of up to 8% to 10%. When the depth of the sedimentation area increases for up to 100 m to 200 m, the microbial processes with the absence of air subside, and the oxidation of organic matter stops and the organic matters transformation ends, which is the stage that the kerogen enters the physical and chemical transformations stage that is determined by the temperature and pressure in the ground.

In the first stage, where the depth of the sediment is from 1.5 km to 2 km, the polymer for kerogen is exposed to small changes where the temperature is 50° C. to 60° C.

The changes can be summed up to deduce the carboxyl, water and the external functional groups as a result of the separation of CH4, H2s, NH2, Co2, and H2o.

When the depth of the sediment is from 2 km to 3.5 km, the temperature reaches 80° C. to 170° C., which is the point that the effective disintegration begins for the basic structure of the kerogen associated with increasing the proportion of liquid bitumen to reach 30% to 40% of the original mass of the kerogen. The Bitumen contains the annular alkanes, alkanes and small and large Alarnjat, in addition to complicated compounds with annular heterogeneous asphalt materials and resin, on the other hand, the percentage of bituminous ingredients in the organic matters increases by several times.

Disintegration of the greatest part of the kerogen and forming the main mass of the Petroleum Hydro carbonate, name the main stage for forming the oil.

When petroleum hydrocarbon is formed, the process of desorption begins, and then their displacement process with gas and water from the clay sediment compacted carbonate to permeable layers of sand reductase as a result for the sudden changes in the pressure.

At the beginning of the main stage, the carbohydrates' formation is quicker than their displacement of the reduction layers. When the depth increases, which leads to the enrichment of the organic matter with the bituminous components and the process of formatting the hydrocarbon subsides with the increase of the rocks depth, which is justified by the consumption of the main part of the kerogen. On the other hand, the speed of the displacement of hydrocarbon constantly increases, as well as the speed of exhausting the bituminous materials and hydrocarbons from organic matter, by increasing the depth of the rocks that generates the petroleum. At this point, the main stage of forming the petroleum comes to the end accompanied with further changes on the kerogen as the sediment depth increases from 4 km to 6 km under the temperature of 200° C. to 250° C. At this temperature and depth, the Alkokih stage starts, which is the higher stage of carbonization, where the kerogen loses big amount of its hydrogen resulting to activate the process of forming the hydrocarbon gas to achieve the end of forming gas main stage. After this stage, the kerogen contains 85% to 90% of the carbon and 1.5% to 3% of the hydrogen. When the rocks depth increases more and more at this stage, slight changes occur with temperature rise in the ground over the kerogen, as it gradually becomes more and more carbon and releases small amounts of the gas products.

Under high temperature and high pressure, the scattered organic materials such as the carbon, enters the intra Sitish stage from its transforming processes.

2.11 Missing Link:

The issue of petroleum displacement has not been adequately studied, and yet basic principles have not been justified. For example, the percentage of the organic matters in the carbonate rocks is 1.5% to 2% while the Bitumen percentage does not exceed the decimal fractions (below 1%).

The bitumen is an essential element of organic matters in the sediment rocks, so, the bitumen cannot leave the organic matters unless through a solvent that can influence rocks to merge with the most movable bitumen materials, and then carry the mixture to a low pressure zone via water and/or gas, as the displacement can only be performed through dissolved water or soluble gas. The rock fusion is considered as of the ways to help performing the process of displacement, in addition to other well-known ways such as re-crystallizing the carbonate material, the phenomenon of the spreading, capillary forces, surface tension forces, and seismic phenomena.

The displacement is accompanied with a change in the nature of the displaced material, such as simplifying, contiguity, reducing the proportion of compounds with non-homogeneous atoms, and weakening the annularity.

2.12 The Organic Origin for Petroleum

Assumptions regarding the petroleum organic origin based on the following factors are:

  • 4—Organic nature of the original materials in the petroleum.
  • 5—The relation between the organic matters and the sedimentary rocks.
  • 6—The suitable conditions for the transformation of the buried materials (kerogen) to Petroleum

2.12.1 Geological Foundations

  • 7—Industrial petroleum reservoirs are chronically correlated with the sedimentary rocks.
  • 8—Crystalline volcanic reservoirs are existed and linked with the sedimentary rocks.
  • 9—The sedimentary rocks are considered as a suitable medium, where the petroleum has the process of forming.
  • 10—There are operations of a direct relationship between the petroleum and the coal formation, and the process of accumulation types of tars.
  • 11—The contracture of the petroleum and asphalt types in it is similar in the structure for the raw fuel that has organic origin such as the coal and the oil shale.
  • 12—The processes of forming the petroleum occurred in various geological eras, where the age of the rocks is around 500 million years, and the minimum age of the rocks is 20 million years to 30 million years.

2.12.2 Geochemical Foundations

  • 4—The petroleum contains optically active substances of biological origin which are existed in the bituminoides.
  • 5—The petroleum contains compounds of biological origin which are found in the bitumen that is located in the sedimentary rocks, such as Alborverinat, alkanes, Alasubrtwedih hydrocarbons, hydrocarbons with Alasteroada construction.
  • 6—The hydrocarbon structure of the bitumen that is found in the organic matter (kerogen) which produces the petroleum. Using mass spectrometry analysis, gas chromatography and liquid chromatography, show that the quantitative ratios and chemical composition of the bitumen found in sedimentary rocks and in bituminous sand are completely and exactly matching.

Regarding the oil shale which is called carbonates shale; in former stages that contains rich organic matters during the antiquity period from the Cambrian era to the Cretaceous era; it is the result of sedimentation processes in a variety of different environments such as sea basins, lakes and swamps, regardless of whether the water is salty or sweet.

In conclusion, the oil shale is younger than geological formations of the oil-bearing and gas-bearing rocks.

Further researches are needed to determine widely and precisely, the age of the oil shale and the petroleum.

2.13 The Origin of Oil Shale Sediments

Different types of petroleum have different properties; however, the elemental analysis or atomic analysis shows similarity between them with small difference in the ratios of the consisting elements that distinguish each type from one another.

The petroleum contains a large number of hydrogen coal such as paraffin, Alinvtinih and fungal coal where each kind of petroleum has different ratios from these elements.

The same principle can be applied to the shale sediments characteristics, i.e., different types of sediment shale has different properties because each kind of sediment shale has different locations (depth and medium), however, there are common characteristics among all models of oil shale, the reason for the similarity in the characteristics is referred to the similarity between all kinds of oil shale in the conditions of forming the shale sediment, these conditions can be listed below:

  • 5—The synchronization between the organic matters disintegration and the position of the soft grains of the debris metallic, which leads to the mixing of the organic components with the non-organic components.
  • 6—The presence of large amounts of organisms that decomposed in the absence of oxygen condition in the middle of a medium that is rich with sulphide hydrogen.
  • 7—Quiet sedimentation in order not to make any changes in the quality of the dissolved gases in the water. This atmosphere exists in fresh water lakes, enclosed seas and deltas, over a warm tropical climate.
  • 8—The organic matters in the sediments that generate the kerogen and the bitumen have organic origin, which require the availability of organic matters, especially river Alachenyat and marine Alachenyat, in addition to the benthic foraminifera and floating foraminifera.

2.14 Shale Models

The multiplicity of kinds of petroleum matches with the existence of multiple models of oil shale such as:

  • 5—Alturbanat: The richest oil shale, which is characterized by low rate of the metallic compounds and high rate of the organic matters. This kind of shale exists in the form of associated blocks within locations for charcoal that are located in disintegrated mediums. It is located mainly in Australia and Pennsylvania.
  • 6—Altasmanic: Distinct model of shale that formed in shallow seas close to beaches. Its organic components are linked to the Alachenyat kinds, widely spread and located in Tasmania and Alaska.
  • 7—Silt ryger: The most important kind of shale (in terms of good quality, big quantity, and amount of organic matters), with marine origin and its sediments from rash and Seltston. It is spread in Alallosa and located in Colorado and Ottawa.
  • 8—Alkourkasi: widely spread in the Republic of Estonia and dates back to the era of Udoveza.

2.15 Geological Conditions for Shale Formation:

The multiplicity of patterns and different shale characteristics that are related to the origin are the results of the variety in petroleum kinds.

The shale sediments stratigraphically spread from the Cambrian era to modern era. Its best marine kind is the black oil shale which is spread over large areas but in low thicknesses.

Some kinds of oil shale consist of a silesia template with poor organic matters. Other kinds of oil shale consist of calcareous template, which is richer in the organic matters than the previous kind.

When oil shale consists of inorganic matters metallic that contains the flint, in this case, the oil shale is combined with the phosphate rocks.

The continental thresholds and modern geological corridors are considered as appropriate to investigate these types of rocks.

As for oil shale with mere origin which was formed during the movements that generated the mountains in the modern world, there are more than 165 mere basins that their sediments date back to the Triple era and they contain oil shale. The movements that generated the mountains in Asia and Europe yielded the oil shale sediments.

2.16 Geological and Tectonic State for Shale Sediments

The formation of oil shale requires suitable tectonic, geological, geochemical and vitality conditions in the sedimentary basins.

The Bituminous facies need to be in a stable acquired medium (accepts electrons) for a long period of time, in addition to organisms and microorganisms, moreover, it is a must to have a large proportion of floating Alachenyat near the surface of the water in the sedimentary medium, because it is the source of the accumulation of organisms at the bottom of the sedimentation basin.

So, the suitable conditions in sedimentation basins and within certain tectonic activities, which restricted these eras in the upper Alsenoni layers era, lower Baliusan and Eocene eras where the bituminous rocks and oil shale came into existence. These facies were formed in marine basins that are adjacent to advancement areas during the Almakrat geological era. In the period of the Geologican Altitus Almakrat era, Marginal basins were formed with extensions linked to the tectonic activities that are related to that period.

Within sedimentary basins, carbonaceous sediments had developed such as marl limestone, marl and lime Apostle, in addition to minor levels of debris. All that happened as a result of the decrease in oxygen, the increase in gas hydrogen sulphide and other gases resulting from the activity of bacteria and the accumulation of a large section of the floating fossils descending to the depths, with the transformation of the medium to become a stronger returner of electrons (strong acquired medium), and by forming the bituminous that is associated with sediments of carbonate. These developments and conditions occurred during the upper Cretaceous layer era and the lower Albaleugen era, resulting in the formation of the bituminous rocks and oil shale.

So, shale is younger than the biological formations of the petroleum bearer. The nature factors, pressure, temperature, time and rotational motion of the earth's seismic helped not turning those sediments to crude oil. So, the sediments were formed in swamps or shallow mere that are related to the formation of coal in coastal environments, which justifies the reason shale contains a wide range of metal compounds and organic materials, which makes shale able to produce shale gas, and shale oil, and this is what justifies using shale as fuel for direct combustion processes for thermal power generation.

The experiences and analyses that were carried out on shale gas and shale oil emphasize the perfect match in their chemical structure with crude oil and natural gas.

2.17 Evaluation of Shale Ores

Conventional energy sources such as coal, natural gas, and oil, along with some problems that are yet unsolved properly are the reasons that make shale oil to be the less important energy source. The most well-known problems that need more attention are the high proportion of ash resulting from the processing of oil shale and the waste which consists 55% to 85% of the total weight of shale. It is the fact that the resulting oil shale compounds are most of the sect's compounds of the unsaturated hydrocarbon which needs a hard hydrogenation process to convert the hydrocarbons into a saturated compound, and then at later stages, to be transported to the refinery. All these operation processes are carried out by ignoring the heavy metals in the oil; furthermore, a huge amount of water is needed for the so called operation processes, which leads to the penetration of small water molecules into the oil molecules and that requires further operations to be separated before heading to the refinery.

The high cost of mining to extract the rocks, crashing it and preparing it for the treatment made the Estonians use the direct combustion of oil shale rock to generate electric power, which could not have succeeded without large amounts of water.

Estonians lead the direct combustion experience which succeeded at that time, however, nowadays, the direct combustion is admitted to be wrong because of using expensive oil to do so, that is why the Shell company uses the thermal injection method by using columns of thermal and electric heating inside the mine. This process continues till dismantling the kerogen into liquid that can be collected via collection columns. The collection columns must use the idea of the ice wall at the processing area to prevent the contamination of the ground water which is another mistake (besides the mistake of heating the ground) that should be avoided.

To face all these challenges in a scientific manner, what must be known and adjusted are the following things:

  • 5—Studying the structure and knowledge of the components of the rock and the knowledge of the full specification of the rock.
  • 6—Studying the shale units and its layers distribution.
  • 7—Studying the general situation for a variety of oil shale in the entire sedimentation basin which the shale was formed in.
  • 8—Determine the environmental and economic problems associated with oil shale investment.

2.18 Turning Point:

As long as the price of a barrel of oil controls the cost of extracting a barrel of oil from oil shale, there will not be a real investment process with acceptable environmental standards and profitable economic criteria in the shale field.

To be able to open a new gate in the shale investment field, it is needed to release the cost of extracting the oil shale via using the petroleum to do so, i.e., to extract oil shale without using petroleum for directs combustion. In such way, it can be claimed that the oil shale can become an unlimited source of energy.

The most important characteristics of oil shale are the heat content and the content of the oil in the shale, and they both are directly proportional to the ratio of the organic matters in the shale.

Two types of organic matters are referred to; the first one is the Mineleiet which is one and half folder poorer in terms of the amount of oil in the shale than the second type which is the Alcolmasi. Moreover, the content of the oil in the shale is more related to the organic matters than the content of heat in the shale in the same ratio (one and half folder) as shown in the following examples:

  • 5—The Alcolmasi organic matters type yields 70% oil from its original matters.
  • 6—The Greinerfr organic matters type yields 66% oil from its original matters.
  • 7—The Vulva organic matters type yields 51% oil from its original matters.
  • 8—The Mineleiet organic matters type yields 21% less oil ratio from its original matters than what Alcolmasi organic matters type yields.

Implementing the experiment on shale that is extracted from the Sultani area in Jordan shows its point of view which is related to the following characteristics as shown in the attached figures:

The FIGS. 1 and 2 show the relation between the organic matter percentage and the density for the Almstrich and Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 1 shows the relation between the organic matter percentage and the density for the Alsmstrich era.

FIG. 2 shows the relation between the organic matter and the density for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 3 and 4 show the relation between the organic matters and the thermal content kcal/kg for the Almstrich and the Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 3 shows the relation between the organic matters and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 4 shows the relation between the organic matter and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 5 and 6 show the relation between the thermal content (kcal/kg) and the oil shale percentage for the Almstrich and Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 5 shows the relation between the shale oil and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 6 shows the relation between the shale oil percentage and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 7 and 8 show the relation between the organic sulphur percentage with the shale oil quality represented by C/H for the Almstrich and the Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 7 shows the relation between the organic matter percentage and the shale oil quality for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 8 shows the relation between the organic matter percentage and the shale oil quality for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 9 and 10 show the relation between the organic sulphur percentage and the shale oil quality represented by C/H for the Almstrich and the Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 9 shows the relation between the organic sulphur percentage and the organic matters percentage for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 10 shows the relation between the organic sulphur percentage and the organic matters percentage for the Eocene era.

As for the results of these relations, several indicators could be given regarding the oil shale and the extracted oil i.e., the minimum heat content of the oil shale rock used in the direct combustion processes for electric power generation should be at least 1000 kcal/kg and the organic matters percentage of at least 16%, and then leading this type of shale to undergo the enrichment processes. The enrichment process is the process to raise the heat content by physicist solution. On the other hand, the minimum heat content of the processed shale to extract the oil shale must be 900 kcal/kg.

The treatment processes of the oil shale, with or without the enrichment are: extracting, smashing, milling, physical process and then pumped into special furnaces.

2.19 Indication:

The wider oil shale layer in the thermal reservoir capacity ranges from 700 to 800 kCal/kg, and each type of oil shale needs to undergo certain amendments for the processing unit to be able to deal with any kind of oil shale rocks.

2.20 Uniqueness:

The invention's industrial unit can handle all kinds of oil shale; in fact, it can handle oil shale with as small heat content as 750 kCal/kg. During the treatment process, water is not needed to deal with the inorganic matters, which stands as an obstacle that had not yet been overcome or even properly disposed by all other existing technologies. This method not only overcomes this issue but also gives an extra environmental and commercial strength.

In fact, in the present industrial process, the resulting oil shale ash (inorganic matters) can be used in two different ways; the first one is to produce solid fuel at the presence of suitable additives which are available and consistent and that must be related to the intended use of this fuel. Secondly, the residue of the solid fuel can be used widely in the building materials industry, cement industry and in other wide range industrial areas.

The implemented analyses show the industrial fields that can use the remnants of the raw materials in these industry applications.

2.21 Studying Shale Units:

There are different forms of ways the oil shale is located in the sediment basin; the best form is when the oil shale exists in consecutive layers, without the presence of interference from other types of rocks. This kind of layers structure contains a good quality of oil shale.

An idea of concentrating the oil shale with heavy fluids was launched to increase the oil shale heat content which redirected the way of studying the type of the oil shale to be in two stages:

  • 3—The first stage is to know the compositional structure of the oil shale and how they are located in details over all layers.
  • 4—The second stage is related to the ability of concentration of the oil shale, and the optimal concentration method to be able to obtain such distinctive quality of the oil shale that can be used in the direct combustion processes.

2.21.1 Studying the Location of the Oil Shale in Sedimentary Basins:

The following key points must be considered when implementing the study:

  • 7—The amount of the location positions, the knowledge of nature and physical, chemical and mechanical specifications for each layer located in the basin.
  • 8—The number of units and oil shale levels in the sedimentation basin, to determine if there is a single composition or more and study its homogeneity, which affects the mining work that can be performed over the studied units.
  • 9—The entire structure is fully studied, and then the specifications are defined to choose the optimal unit investment method in the sedimentation basin.
  • 10—In the studied area, if the oil shale structure dates back to the era of Almastumjta which is characterized by large thicknesses, it enables to perform the mining work even over small and limited spaces.
  • 11—The knowledge of the structural situation of the oil shale and determining the direction of the slope in the layer(s), to facilitate the convergence process between the different types of oil shale layers.
  • 12—Ensure that there is ground movements that affected the sedimentation basin, and if it remained symmetric. This can be known through comparing the drilled wells during the implementation of the operational studies.

2.22 Economic and Environmental Standards for the Investment Processes Over the Oil Shale Field:

Oil shale industry is considered as successful when the cost of extracting shale oil and shale gas are not linked to the prices of traditional energy sources (coal, petroleum and natural gas). Moreover, choosing the perfect treatment unit that reaches production capacity of 1,000 barrels per day, accordingly, the total production capacity of the commercial companies is determined by the number of the optimal processes units which should meet the needs of a particular area. These facts are directly reflected in the cost of capital and the cost of the investment which is necessary to set up a business to invest in shale.

The social status of the areas that contain oil shale is reflected on the need for oil shale development projects, in addition to the ability for these areas to the development and to take advantage of the geographical location.

The existing shale zones are often desert areas and are almost free from farming strategies, so the geotechnical and hydrogeological conditions are suitable for the mining work rather than the agribusiness.

Due to the techniques used in the work, it is depended on the execution of the surface treatment for the extraction of oil shale which is related to the wide mining work accompanied by environmental impacts which are entirety under control. However, extracting oil shale in large quantities can cause biological damage to the ecosystem of the land, in addition to the released carbon dioxide which results from the shale thermal dissociation, however, this issue is totally under control as well.

It is worth mentioning that, the techniques used, neither affect the groundwater nor consume any amount of water during the treatment processes, in fact, this invention produces 40 litres to 60 litres of water per 1 ton oil shale.

All the rest of environmental factors associated with the various stages of the project achieve the permitted environmental regulations for water, soil, air, organisms and humans, so, it can comfortably be claimed that the invention and the technologies to be applied fit the economy under the permitted environmental affect. Oil Shale Treatment Method Background

2.23 Introduction

In this section, the most applicable methods which deal with oil shale are introduced.

At first the type of oil shale treatment and the background about the former used methods to extract shale oil and shale gas from oil shale are mentioned.

2.24 Oil Shale Processing Methods:

The rock processing techniques need to be done outside the work place (surface treatment), in addition to the wide range mining operations, however, commercially, the surface treatment is quite limited as most of the mining operations are being performed in the same project's location (spatial treatment) but for limited mining operations that depend on developing the heating methods of the oil shale rocks.

2.24.1 Surface Treatment Processes:

These processes include implementing integrated studies; extracting oil shale, primary smashing operations, mining operations and preparing oil shale for treatment, thermal dismantling for oil shale, performing a tough hydrogenation process over the extracted oil before being sent to the refinery for the distillation process (separate its components into final products), taking into consideration that the thermal dismantling can be performed by using either the direct combustion or the indirect combustion methods.

Examples for the surface treatment processes:

    • The Alberta Taciuk Process (ATP) technology derived from the processing of the bituminous sands in Canada.
    • The technology of Baraho had been applied and then stopped in Queensland in Australia.
    • The technology of petro-6 which is performed by the Brazil's Petrobras (linked to the alliance of Total).
    • The technology of Aanavi which is implemented by the Estonian Aistieinerjna with the new allies for doing developmental work derived from oil extraction methods.
    • The technology of Fushun which is implemented by a Chinese mining group that mixes coal into the treatment processing.

2.24.2 Spatial Treatment Processes

The spatial treatment processes include precise and integrated studies, very limited mining operation, thermal processes for the oil shale inside the work location and injecting hot contusive materials inside the oil shale. The heading is made either thermally or electrically, and then the liquefied oil gathers in internal drilled wells and then pumped to the surface to be treated in the same treatment processes used in surface treatment.

For commercial application, several companies supervise the research and implementation work, such as Shell, Hevrdn, and the U.S. Company for oil shale rock. These companies rent a land containing oil shale and implement empirical research to reach a new generation of technologies to achieve the implementation of, the technical economic feasibility, environmental and commercial studies.

Shell initiated a project to protect groundwater from contamination, as it has created an ice wall that serves as a cooling wall around the place of the treatment to prevent oil leakage and mixing with groundwater.

ExxonMobil also leads the research which relies on heating the rocks in place by hydraulic cracking where electrically connected materials fill the cracks to heat the kerogen and turns it into oil.

Raaxion technology purchased by Schlumberger, which relies on the use of Radio Frequencies (RF) microwave and critical gas (SCF) such as carbon dioxide (Co2) in order to heat the kerogen in the oil shale and convert it into shale gas and shale oil.

2.25 Worldview of Oil Shale as an Energy Source

Nowadays, the researchers and those interested in investment stand on the threshold of oil shale investment, which can provide the world with energy over the next decade, if they were reasonably able to draw the stored energy in oil shale and support this source by other renewable sources of energy in its various forms.

Below the global aspirations and forms of investment to exploit the energy stored in the oil shale are shown:

2.25.1 First: Thermal Decomposition (Retorting):

The retorting process is used to extract the kerogen from oil shale, and then the resulting kerogen undergoes a heating process to reach 450° to 550° in the absence of air heating conditions. After certain physical processing steps, shale oil will be extracted.

The maximum extracted oil amount reaches 10% of the shale weight, and this ratio can be practically obtained with proper treatment steps for such good quality of oil shale rocks, such as the used oil shale in the research work (oil shale in Sultani area in Jordan).

The extracted unsaturated hydrocarbon oil faces several problems which are considered as the main obstacles that face the extracted oil before the distillation process; the main problem is the low heat content which does not exceed 4000 kcal/kg, moreover, the high content of sulphur and nitrogen besides the high rate of heavy metals.

To solve these problems, the extracted oil undergoes a harsh hydrogenation process, separating the pervasive water molecules from the oil molecules. Moreover, the sulphur and nitrogen must be separated as well as removing the heavy metals. After these modification processes, the extracted oil is then ready to be pumped to the refinery. The way the invention performs the previous processes is directly reflected over the economic cost of the production of shale oil in addition to the negative environmental effects associated with those operations.

2.25.2 Second: Direct Combustion:

This method is performed in two ways:

  • 3—Following operations are made in the same order: extraction, crushing, milling to the level of 100 to 200 microns and then puffed to private furnaces combined with liquid fuel and air or gas.

This method is applied to the good quality kinds of shale with heat content of 1800 kcal/kg and above. This is the exact method which is being applied in Estonia.

  • 4—The layer modification method (Fluidized bed):

This method is not practically implemented yet as all the oil shale treatment is applied over the oil shale with heat content of 2400 kcal/kg. However, it is important to fully study this method as it deals with the oil shale with heat content below 1000 kcal/kg, which is most of the oil shale in the world. So, this treatment method has a good future to deal with a very wide range of oil shale.

After the milling process, the resulting mixture is physically treated by Physicist mix (Majnti+water) to raise the heat content. The resulting mixture is then pumped to various types of furnaces and then the air is compressed to mix the fuel molecules, the coal molecules and the ash molecules in addition to the steam which is impelled from the bottom.

This method is applied over the medium and poor quality of the shale, where the shale is considered as poor if it has heat content of 1000 kcal/kg or less.

2.25.3 Third: Gaseous Smashing (Gasification):

It is a research idea that has not been implemented yet, this idea based on conversion of the solid fuels (coal and oil shale) into gaseous fuel with high heat content. This gaseous fuel is then directed to power stations which are operated either by gas turbines or by combined cycles to produce electrical energy.

This idea is linked to another idea named coal liquefaction, which is the conversion of coal to liquid that is in this case hydrocarbon fuels. This method depends on the reduction of the weight ratio of the carbon to the hydrogen by either hydrogenation or removing some carbon atoms by producing the coal Cole or carbon monoxide. These treatment processes are accompanied by secondary fuel products such as, gas, gasoline light, heavy oils and wax.

In conclusion, this method is well known but it is far beyond being able to be implemented.

United States raised the efficiency of the liquefaction and is working to achieve economic feasibility of this method, which focused on:

  • 5—Hydrogenation of coal or oil shale under high pressure conditions.
  • 6—High heat decomposition (pyrolysis).
  • 7—Resolving the coal or the oil shale with suitable solution.
  • 8—Improving the resulted synthetic gases by using Lurgi method.

2.25.4 Fourth: Extraction of Organic Matter from Oil Shale:

Organic matter is composed of kerogen (complex hydrocarbons) and Batonin (mixed hydrocarbon); the first part is exclusively extracted by the thermal smashing, while the second part is extracted by using proper solvents.

The possibility of extracting these two parts together is extremely complicated besides the high economical cost which is the main obstacle in implementing this method, moreover, to implement this method; high temperature and high pressure need to be obtained with the presence of other technologies that require the presence of steam, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide. All these conditions do increase the cost of producing a barrel of shale oil, taking into consideration the quality of the extracted shale oil and the ability to be sent to the refineries.

2.25.5 Fifth: In-Situ Conversion Process Method:

This technique is based on the principle of reducing the cost of the extracted barrel of shale oil when located in the ground under the lid and to mitigate the negative impacts over the environment. The purpose of this action is to get rid of the cost of mining operations, as well as to get rid of the remnants of heating after extracting the shale oil.

The principle depends on digging a range of holes in the oil shale reservoir location, and then pumping the heat or heating materials into these holes resulting to heat the earth layers that contain the oil shale. The heating process is either thermally or electrically which is accompanied with moving the shale oil that resulted from the thermal smashing of organic matters.

So, the method is basically based on heating the oil shale container layers, by either injecting thermal materials or applying high voltage over conductors which are inserted inside the oil shale reservoir to heat the earth surrounding layers.

It could be asked; does this method take into account the impact of heating over the earth's gaseous envelope? Does that have been linked to the phenomenon of global warming? These questions should be asked and answered before wondering about the reasons of the accelerated to climate changes for the earth!

Shell International, as one of the leaders in the use of this technique, should be asked whether the rid of the high cost of mining and mitigation of environmental impact are equivalent. Especially with regard to what is happening on earth! If the answer is ‘necessities permit prohibitions’, it can be confirmed that the quality of the resulting shale oil from the treatment process of this method faces the same problems that were faced by the obtained shale oil by the former methods, such as, being pumped from the assembly holes, directed to the process of hydrogenation, and then being subjected to the same treatment to get rid of the harmful substances such as sulphur, nitrogen, heavy metals, separating the unsaturated hydrocarbon, etc.

2.26 The Wastes of Oil Shale

If the method that is implemented by Shell International is excluded, and an amount of oil shale which is estimated by 20,000 tons as an example are intended to be invested, a two-way investment is being faced:

  • 3—Extracting the shale oil and gas from the oil shale, and then performing the treatment and purification of shale oil before directing it to the refinery, which produces different types of fuel or performs the process of separating the oil compounds which are regarded as the basis of petrochemical industries.
  • 4—Direct combustion after performing the following processes: smashing, milling, injecting particular materials to improve the combustion processes, pumping to special furnaces mixed with air or liquidized or gaseous fuel in order to generate the steam and the electricity.

Two challenges which should be properly treated are being faced. The first one is the amount of ash resulting from the combustion processes which is estimated in the range of 56% to 85% of the original amount of the oil shale rocks. The second challenge is the amount of ash that results from extracting shale oil and shale gas. These two types of ashes are regarded as a solid waste and non-symmetric waste; first waste is treated in the field of 450° C. to 550° C. and the second waste is caused by the burning at 1200° C. In the second challenge, the amount of ash that has heat content of 800° C. or less is unable to be treated by the available processing units, in addition to the quantities of water, air and the pumping gas required for the treatment and transportation.

2.27 Where from the Global Technology Launched for Oil Shale

The global oil shale technologies launched from the petroleum simulation of the petroleum formation processes, i.e., the slow changing that happened under the earth over millions of years, where the temperature range is from 60° C. to 110° C. which is accompanied with the pressure of the vibratory ground motion.

Kinetic chemistry explains that it is possible to convert kerogen into oil over a period of time that takes anywhere from minutes to hours, providing the availability of suitable reactors and treatment temperature of 450° to 500°.

Oil shale is considered as a sedimentary rock with soft granules of different origin, consisting of inorganic metallic materials (carbonate, silicate, clays) that are mixed with organic materials (Bitumen and kerogen) which are overlapped with different metal elements.

2.28 Oil Shale Classification:

Shale classification is based on the rates of major components: First of all, oil shale components are listed below:

    • Organic materials: Bitumen and Kerogen.
    • Metallurgy Alvhmauah: Calcite and Dolomite.
    • Debris materials: Quartz, Wlosbat, and Clay metals.

According to the above listed components, there are two types of oil shale:

  • 3—Oil shale with a high content of Calcium dates back to the era of Almastranga.
  • 4—Oil shale with high content of Calcium kerogen dates back to the era of Alallosa.

2.28.1 Oil Shale Classification Based on the Percentage of Phosphate:

In such type of classification, there are three types of the oil shale:

  • 4—Oil shale with low phosphate content P2O5 by 1% to 5%.
  • 5—Oil shale with medium phosphate content P2O5 by 5% to 15%.
  • 6—Oil Shale with high phosphate content P2O5 by above 15%.

2.28.2 Oil Shale Specification Used in the Present Invention

The specifications of oil shale that has been studied in the present invention are:

    • Content of organic material: from 14% to 25%.
    • Heat content: from 850 kcal/kg to 1585 kcal/kg.
    • Oil percentage: from 6% to 12%/o.
    • Oil percentage in the organic matters: from 40% to 50%.
    • Sulphur percentage: From 0.8% to 1.8%
    • Humidity rate: 6% to 10%
    • Proportion of gas losses: 8% to 12%

2.28.3 Shale Oil Quality Grade

Three factors to determine the shale oil quality grade could be relied on:

  • 4—The intensity of combustion processes.
  • 5—The flame colour and shape.
  • 6—The possibility of the presence of the external black flame (Sohar) at the top of the flame.

According to these three factors, three kinds of shale oil quality as shown in the table 2 below could be counted:

TABLE 2 The three kids of shale oil quality according to the three quality grade factors. Shale Oil Quality Grade Kind Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Kind 1 Good quality Clear and continuous Gives strong and of flame flame after powerful smell removing the heating source Kind 2 Less good Flame disappears Gives good quality of when removing smell flame than 1 the source of heating Kind 3 Bad quality Flameless Gives just of flame normal smell

The Alpetrograveh study shows that, the basic block (basic rock) of oil shale rock is a microscopic organic structured and are mostly contented of a single cabin or multiple cabins. The large cabin has Kelsey template and the mall cabin has Dolomite template, were both types of cabins are full with organic matters (hydrocarbons).

2.29 Energy Sources:

Energy source is a material that provides light, heat or power and they are classified as:

  • 3—Traditional sources: These sources have emerged with the advent of human to life, and they are being used since then. These materials are: wood, coal, crude oil and natural gas.
  • 4—New and renewable sources are divided into:
    • c—Fossil fuel: such as the nuclear fuel (uranium), oil shale and the bituminous sands.
    • d—Non fossil fuel: such as the potential energy of water, solar energy, wind energy, kinetic energy of the tides, waves energy, energy results from the variation in temperature between the surface and depth in the ocean, geothermal energy in the ground, bio-energy, biomass energy and waste energy.

When the Industrial Revolution in Europe launched, it relied on coal, where the quantity was large and the cost to exploit this source was cheap, but the environmental impact of this source was not satisfactory.

However, with the progress of civilization and the role of energy in securing amenities and transport for human, the discovery of oil appeared and had been followed by the discovery of natural gas to increase the availability of energy sources and secure its continuity.

Human beings started consuming energy sources randomly, and without controls, which led to the emergence of environmental problems affected the basic necessities of life (air, the atmosphere, soil, surface water and groundwater), which makes it necessary to control the energy sources and their consumptions.

EXAMPLE

To calculate the heat of combustion of oil shale rock, proceeding from the basic data for the results of tests that carried out on the studied samples; the following equation is applied:


Q=81C+246H−26(O—S)−97−K(O2m)−6w

Where C, H, O, and S are the percentages of the materials that are contented in the burned amount, taking into consideration the components of the equation are determined by chemical analyses which are performed over the combustion material. The factor K is coefficient of carbon decomposition; when K=0; this means that there is not any decomposition, and when K=1; this means that the material is completely decomposed. And finally, the factor W is the percentage of moisture in the oil shale.

If the goal of the investment in oil shale is to reduce the dependence on crude oil or natural gas, that is used as a process of power generation; the high cost of the these two sources and the possibility of depletion, were behind the fact that supports the idea of investing in oil shale instead, and redirect the use of oil and natural gas to other various industries, rather than to be used as fuel for combustion processes when used to generate the power.

Experience proves that plastics and fertilizer industries, as well as pharmaceuticals and dyes, in addition to the pesticide industry are all industries that can be accessed by petroleum; it could be assured that the extracted shale oil can be an easier gateway and closer to those industries than petroleum. Shale is a type of rock, which shows the blending of organic metallic part with organic part, so, when the oil shale is put under scientific experiment and researches and according to precise criteria mode, the following equation comes up:


Oil Shale=solid fuel+crude oil+natural gas

And to get into the above equation in detailed form, the equation could be rewritten as:


Shale gas+Shale oil+water+solid fuel+remnants of solid fuel+hot air=coal+crude oil+natural gas.

It could be noted that the detailed equation shows that, when oil shale are treated in scientific and realistic ways; the oil shale is higher and richer than all other traditional energy sources when they are combined, and this is different from the scientific reality that states that oil is the top source for power generation.

2.30 The History of Oil Shale Treatment

The oil shale is a sedimentary rock in the composition that contains organic matters located in precise placements. When the rock undergoes a thermal dismantling process; the organic matter whose basis is of kerogen (a Greek word meaning oil generator) can be separated from the rock to give shale oil and shale gas. The rocks containing kerogen is a type of sedimentary rock such as limestone, clay, silica sand, phosphate, or any mixture of these substances.

To handle the rock, it is necessary to perform assessment tests to determine the proportion of organic matters, analysis of the quality of combustion and the flame shape. Analysis includes the type and quantity of minerals and determining the amount of oil in the rock. These tests are carried out by using the Fischer device which represents a scale model to determine the most important values; it gives the proportion of oil, water ratio, the specific weight of the oil, the proportion of gas and ash content.

Economically, the treatment method to convert the project to a commercial production requires the study of metallic components and the organic side to determine the degree of benefit. The project is considered as a pioneer when it achieves the law of conservation of mass and the energy flow law.

Throughout history, the use of oil shale as a source of energy and its benefits put it under the spot light. Table 3 below shows the old usage of oil shale by several countries.

Table 3 shows the historical view over the use of shale oil in several countries from 1838 to 1957.

Previous Usage of Oil Shale Country Period of Time France 1838 to 1957 Scotland 1862 to 1962 South Africa 1935 to 1962 Sweden 1940 to 1952 Australia 1940 to 1952 Spain 1922 to 1966

The most famous and biggest examples for using oil shale currently are listed below:

  • 4—Estonia's experience in direct combustion of oil shale rock which has not been repeated in any other country (Estonia possesses huge reserves of oil shale).
  • 5—The experience of Germany, which is based on direct combustion processes first to generate steam and electricity, and then cooling the combustion products to be used in the cement production.
  • 6—China's experience in oil extraction with the implementation of mining operations and processing of oil shale rock where coal is involved in the treatment processes.

Research and development are directed to develop the combustion ways, taking into account the economic costs and environmental impacts, but ignoring the development of treatment methods itself, which is what the present invention aims to.

Shell has implementation of slow heating test of oil shale rock by using electric heating poles on site, but has faced the problem of groundwater contamination, and therefore has created the ice wall idea to solve this problem.

The economic impact of using the ice wall idea should be questioned.

Schlumberger uses dual technology, by radio frequency (RF) microwave idea, in addition to the use of critical gas (SCF) such as carbon dioxide for heating processes.

This method could be called a luxury treatment method.

Company Este Energy uses Djilatorr method to extract oil together with the backed allies Aanavi to develop a commercial method to deal with the oil shale.

In conclusion, the oil shale processing methods in FIG. 11 below could be listed as attached.

FIG. 11 shows the oil shale processing methods Having started from the standard device Fisher to handle 100 grams, and then a Pilot that can handle 4 Kg every 20 minutes, and then a half industrial unit that can almost handle one full ton every 27 minutes were developed. The result of treatment on a mixture of oil shale with the lowest heat content from 850 kcal/kg to 1585 kcal/kg, the percentage of organic matter from 10% to 22% and the moisture content of 6% to 10%. The detailed results of this experiment are shown in table 3 below (products per one tone of oil shale):

Table 3 shows the produced products from one tone of the oil shale.

Measurement Heat Content Product Name Unit Quantity Per Unit Shale Gas Cubic meter (m3)  92 to 110 14800 kcal Shale Oil Litre (L)  80 to 100 10500 kcal Solid Fuel Kilo gram (Kg) 530 to 700  8000 kcal Solid Fuel Kilo gram (kg) 420 to 580 Industrial use Residual Water Litre (L) 40 to 60 in need for — purification Hot Air — Unmeasured —

2.31 Investment Ways of Oil Shale

There are no effective experiences in the field of investment in this very important energy source, which scatters research efforts and makes the way unclear. So, all ways of investment are facing difficult challenges because the price of a barrel of oil does not leave a space for overcoming these challenges.

2.31.1 First: Direct Combustion:

Shale oil is used as fuel for burning and is relied upon to generate steam and electric power. Shale ores are characterized by high content of metallic materials (content of ash+carbonate content from 80% to 90%), and contain Cox which is estimated by 27% to 31%. The sulphur proportion increases with the increase of the organic matters percentage which reaches up to 2.8% while the value of the moisture is variable and not fixed.

Burning good quality fuels (solid, liquid and gas) that create little ash is well thought out and has regulations and standards. The medium and bad qualities of oil shale with a high content of ash and gas emissions caused problems, mainly, the high rate of burning materials that contribute to the decrease in heat transfer from the centre of the furnace to the walls, due to the accumulation of ash, which made efforts tend to distinguish between the two types of oil shale and the presence of two methods for direct burning of oil shale rock which are:

  • 3—The method of extraction, crushing, milling in the form of powder, pumping to the furnaces via a special path. This method is applied over good kinds of oil shale (Estonian experiment).
  • 4—The layer modification method (Fluidized bed): Method of extraction, crushing, milling, blending, pushing to the surface of the perforated layer, pushing air through the perforated surface, paying heavy vapour at the bottom of the layer, mixed with fuel and ash particles and coal.

Differentiation between the minimum temperature is a must, which is the degree to which the molecule begins boiling, and then the temperature continues to rise until reaching the maximum temperature, which is the degree to which the molecule reaches the maximum speed, which is the speed that the molecule starts leaving the modification layer and out of the furnace, while the non-complete-burnt molecules can be returned to the furnace.

In both ways of the direct combustion, it has to be taken into account that the percentage of moisture in the rock has a negative role; it is harmful and contributes to increase the loss of the combustion heat and thus, decreasing the resulting of the thermal energy.

231.2 Second: Shale Oil Extract by Thermal Decomposition (Retorting Processes):

Oil shale is extracted, subjected to mining operations, packaged, entered into treatment heat units, the temperature is increased to reach about 550° degree, between the range of 450° and 550° the kerogen material starts the disintegrating to give oil and gas simultaneously. Because of the mechanism of blending between the organic materials and inorganic remains, from 15% to 20% of the organic matter origin contented in the oil shale remains untreated.

The retorting processes depend on the direct combustion and the indirect combustion:

  • 22—Direct combustion: The treatment oil shale furnaces are fed with raw material from the s top with ranging sizes from 6 to 100 mm, and then combustion gas+combustion air are blown from the bottom of the furnace (the retorting remainders area), the coal in the retorting remainders get burnt, resulting to increase the temperature of the air emitted from the bottom, up to the temperature that is sufficient to dismantle the kerogen that exists in oil shale into shale oil and shale gas. The collected shale oil and shale gas are located at the top of the heating furnace to maintain the oil fumes from the combustion.
  • 23—Indirect combustion: The combustion gases do not touch the used oil shale to extract the shale oil and shale gas from it. Material that touches the oil shale is heated solids (heat-resistant balls retorted oil shale and heated gas), the heat exchange between these heating materials and oil shale that needs to be treated. When oil shale reaches the degree of 550°, the organic matters disintegrates into shale oil and shale gas.

2.31.3 Third: The Combined Method:

This method combines the direct combustion and the indirect combustion (retorting) methods. When the oil shale undergoes the retorting processes, the shale oil and the shale gas can be extracted. The remainders organic matters undergo the direct combustion process to obtain extra heat used to rise the heating gas temperature and to generate electric power.

2.31.4 Fourth: In-Site Retorting:

Wide mining operations are not needed; moreover, it is not required to extract oil shale as the treatment operation is performed in the same location of the oil shale.

Specific surface area is determined, a group of wells are dug geometrically (pumping wells and production wells), heat or heating materials are pumped into those wells to heat the container layers of oil shale in the studied area. This is performed either thermally or electrically, upon arrival to the desired temperature, shale oil and shale gas move from the organic matters existing in oil shale.

The essence of the process is injecting hot liquid materials and electric conductors to control the temperature.

Shell International conducted tests on three techniques from (ICP) that relies on the slow heating of oil shale layers with heating poles. To prevent contamination of groundwater, the idea of ice wall was invented to prevent oil leakage into the groundwater.

Exxon Mobil leads the experience that depends on the hydraulic cracking, the cracks are filled with electrically conductor materials and then, high voltage is applied to heat the materials that contribute to exchange the heat between the conductor materials and the oil shale to reach the degree of the dismantling of the organic matters contained in the oil shale.

Schlumberger used a technique based on a combination of using radio frequencies (RF) in microwaves principle (Microwave idea) and critical gas (SCF) such as carbon dioxide, to heat the organic matters in the oil shale.

2.31.5 Fifth: Gaseous Smashing (Gasification):

The idea has not been applied, and still under discussion. It starts from converting the solid fuels (coal and oil shale) into gas fuel with a high thermal content, and then this gas fuel is directed to electric power plants that work by the gas turbine or the combined cycle in order to produce the electric power.

2.31.6 Sixth: Extraction of Organic Matters from Oil Shale:

The organic matters are contented from kerogen (complex hydrocarbon) that does not dissolve in solvents and the bitumen (mixed hydrocarbon) that dissolves in solvents.

The Kerogen is dealt with the thermal decomposition only, which is the basis of dealing with all previous techniques that has been mentioned.

The bitumen is dealt with through the use of organic solvents, The possibility of reconciling of extracting the two materials is difficult, expensive and not possible to be implemented mainly, when we think to supply the extracted fuel for the whole country, the problem lies in the fact that the boiling degrees of the solvents are different, in addition to that the kerogen dismantle needs high temperature and high pressure and reconciling them is not possible. However, this technique succeeds when used for limited quantities (dissolve the carbon, then dissolve the silicates and silica, and then separate the organic matters), but the cost is high-priced and even if achieved, it does not rise to meet the needs of a country of shale oil or shale gas.

2.32 Technological Methods to Extract Shale Oil from Oil Shale

2.32.1 First: In-Site Thermal Decomposition (In-Situ):

Similar to the gasification of the coal method for the coal that is located in the ground, where we initially choose a specific area and drill multiple wells, a group of these wells are used to inject hot material in and to apply high-voltage and the second group of wells are used to collect the produced shale oil and that are called production wells.

The heating materials are injected into the first group of wells and then connected to high voltage to heat the oil shale layer electrically; the heating process progresses gradually, and the temperature rises to the level that the kerogen starts disintegrating and transforms into shale gas and shale oil. The produced shale gas and shale oil are gathered in production wells, and then pumped into the earth surface to be treated before being redirected to the refinery for refining and separating the components.

Advantages and disadvantages for in-situ method:

The advantages are listed below:

  • 6—There are no negative impacts on the environment.
  • 7—This technology can be applied in agricultural and residential areas.
  • 8—The cost of extraction and transportation of oil shale rocks does not exist.
  • 9—There are no ashes that need to be thrown away and,
  • 10—The ability of applying this technique to the oil shale that is located at abyssal depths.

And the disadvantages are listed below:

  • 6—The extraction technology is complicated.
  • 7—The obtained oil must undergo all processing steps that are performed over the extracted oil by other methods.
  • 8—Shale permeability and impenetrability, which creates the possibility of the removal of oil through which is a difficult process.
  • 9—The control of the heating process and increasing it gradually is difficult and complicated.
  • 10—The possibility of oil and gas leakage through the cracks into groundwater basins, which would contaminate it.

2.32.2 Second: Out-Site Thermal Decomposition (Ex-Situ):

This method is classified according to the position of heating materials and devices and according to the flow of oil:

2.32.2.1 Vertical Format (Oil Falls):

2.10.2.1.3 Nevada, Texas and Utah (NTV) Method:

The oil shale is fed into two devices with 40 tones capacity each from the top, where the hot gas is fed as well to heat the oil shale continually till reaching the temperature of kerogen dismantles, resulting to shale gas and shale oil productions. The amount of air and the retuned gas are adjusted, while the thermal decomposition continues toward the bottom. At the bottom, the gas is condensed and turns into a liquid, the remaining gaseous section is directed to heat the oil shale producing more shale oil and shale gas. The shale gas is again redirected to heat new oil shale and these processes continue periodically.

The disadvantages for this technique are listed below:

    • The soft oil shale impedes the periodic movement of the gas.
    • The formed coal gathers in the rewind oil equipment.
    • This operation discontinuous.
    • The production capacity is small.

2.10.2.1.4 UNION Oil Method:

The oil shale is crushed into pieces with dimensions of 0.5 inch to 2 inches. The heater height is up to 45 meters above earth surface. The shale oil is fed from the heater's exit and then inserted into the oil shale feeder. A compressor with a diameter of 3 meters pushes the oil shale to the top of the heater. The gas is heated by an opposite stream of rotor gas that is inserted from the top of the heater. This process continues till reaching the temperature of the kerogen disintegration, resulting to condensed oil that is gathered at the bottom of the heater. The consumed oil shale is then pushed out via a tunnel at the bottom of the heater.

2.32.2.2 Vertical Format (Oil Rises to the Top):

The shale enters continuously from the top to downward under the influence of gravity, the combustion area is near to air and gas distribution area, and then the steam rises towards the top to heat oil shale which falls toward the bottom. The steam is directed to Sapklon then to a removal device and then to electric precipitator. The oil shale falls from the top downward towards the bottom contributes to heat the interred air and gas, and finally, the gas is recycled continuously to take advantage of it.

The disadvantage of this method is the accumulation of forming the clinker.

1.28.2.3 Paraho Method:

The oil shale is crashed to pieces of dimensions of 0.25 inch to 3 inches to be fed from the top of the heater and distributed evenly by a rotor distributor. A mixture of gas and air enters the heater from several places distributed over the entire heater walls; the gas inside the heater is then heated from bottom by the falling oil shale from the top.

The combination of the fog and steam-hydrocarbon move to an electric precipitator and then, the heat exchange between the hot steam and the cold oil shale is performed at the top to reduce the use of water.

2.32.2.3 Horizontal Position TOSCO II:

The oil shale is heated inside a silo by a specific fluid, and then it is moved to a horizontal heater to be heated by a hot ceramic. The consumed oil shale is then pushed over a sieve to get cooled and stored.

The cold ceramic passes over the sieve and be brought back to the heater by a crane, and finally the gas is condensed and then distilled; non-condensed gas is used as fuel.

The advantages of this method are:

    • Jetting quantity is large when compared to other methods.
    • Good thermal efficiency.
    • The production capacity is high.
    • The heating process does not depend on the gas molecules as a heat-bearer inside the device.
    • The heating process is performed from the outside, and the resulting gas has high heating content, which does not contain N2 or Cox.

2.32.2.4 The Combined Method:

This method is similar to NTU method but it is implemented under the ground using multiple distillation processes which are performed in a huge silo using a horizontal cliff to rise from 15% to 20% of the oil shale that is somehow handled.

Several holes are drilled in the ground and then explosives are placed in these wholes; then detonated every certain period of time, the device becomes full with rocks and in a shape of a narrow chimney. The empty volume of this chimney is equal to the volume of the removed rocks. While the broken rocks support the walls and ceiling, they allow the flow of gas. Then the oil shale is burned from the top and the shale oil and shale gas run in parallel towards the bottom where the cooling and condensation are performed in the lower areas, then the oil is pumped from the whole at the bottom. The remaining carbon from the cracking at the combustion zone is burnt.

Finally, the section of the gas with low heat content value is returned to the top and burn to increase the heat needed for the cracking process.

it can be noticed that this method is called the combined method, because the oil shale which is near to the earth surface is processed using the out-situ method, while the oil shale which is far from the earth surface is processed using the in-situ method.

2.33 Industrial Challenges:

    • The extracted shale oil contains a high percentage of the chemical compositions of olefins (unsaturated hydrocarbon compounds) sometimes by up to 40% of the shale oil origin.
    • The existing of a nitrogen ratio accounted about 2%, either in the free form or in the compound form, which plays a very negative role in the elimination of the role of the mediator, which is used in refining operations.
    • The sulphur exists in organic and inorganic forms which has a significant negative impact on the refining methods.
    • The oil shale has sedimentary origin, when undergoing thermal cracking processes; the extracted oil shale contains a high proportion of metals that have a negative impact by eroding the mediators that used in the refining process.
    • The boiling range of the oil shale is narrower, which is unlike crude oil, when the shale oil subjected to the separation process, it is noted that it produces limited number of products, such as, naphtha and fuel oil, with limited quantity in shale oil
    • The density and viscosity of the oil shale are high, when compared with the density and viscosity of crude oil, resulting in different styles of shale oil refining processes to get the same final products of oil.
    • During the process of thermal decomposition of the oil shale, the temperature of the oil shale rises in an atmosphere of Co, H2o and H2, however, sometimes just water is used to crack the inorganic matters to release the kerogen according to the temperature and pressure, which leads to the penetration of the water micro-molecules between the gas molecules and thus the possibility of separation becomes more difficult even when using the most precise methods.
    • The acids, alkalis, sulphates, nitrates and hydrocarbon have fixed rates in the temperature range from 370° C. to 400° C., but these rates change in a large scale in the temperature range of 475° C. to 525° C., which is a clear indicator for the disintegration of these compounds.
    • Regarding the hydrocarbon, it has a fixed concentration when using water to extract the organic matters at low temperature range. However, at the high temperature range; the situation is different, for example have 1 C12→C20 entration rat C28→C34 ich confirms the existence of thermal disintegration.
    • The constant of oxygen is content at the temperatures below 250° C., when the temperature increases, content of oxygen starts decreasing due to the disintegration of the oxygenic compounds. At the temperature range above 350° C., it is noticed that the rate of the disintegration increases. This can be seen through the decrease of the resin amount of and the increase in the amount of the hydrocarbon in the shale oil, but this is associated with a significant increase in the quantities of the olefins.
    • In the studied areas, it is noted that, there are two types of organic matters, bitumen and kerogen which show the difference in the chemical composition of each of them.
    • Different quantitative and chemical composition of organic matters as well as the inorganic section difference in the chemical composition, are the reason for the difference between the different types of oil shale and this is what prompted specialists to say that, each type of oil shale is in need for a particular pattern of treatment, and the extraction unit that is used to deal with the Estonian oil shale, as an example, is not suitable to be used in processing the American oil shale, and that is justified by the previously mentioned factors.
    • The distribution of organic matters and inorganic materials in the oil shale is non-regular and non-homogeneous which underlines the difficulty of separating them.

2.34 Environmental Problems:

    • Oil shale in its chemical composition contains high percentages of sulphur and nitrogen, so, when using the direct combustion to obtain the thermal energy stored in the oil shale; both of Sox and Nox are formed.
    • Sox: Has a toxic effect on humans and animals, air and soil. For example; if this gas is emitted into the atmosphere under rain, it forms H2So4, which affects the soil and flora.
    • Nox: If emitted in the atmosphere, it has several biological effects, for example, No2 affects the plants by causing paleness and defoliation. Moreover, it affects the respiratory system and mucous membranes of the organisms. There are no specific effects on humans because it reacts with blood haemoglobin.
    • Dust and high vibrations that are associated with the mining operation and extraction of the oil shale, in addition to the dust resulting from the treatment which cannot be controlled by using the electrostatic precipitators.
    • Acids resulting from the process of oxidative stress when the extracted oil shale is exposed to the sun and air; these compounds affect the human beings.
    • Extracting large amounts of oil shale from one place may cause changes in the earth's layered structure, which could be associated with ground movements.
    • Oil shale processing may be accompanied with emissions of different kinds of Cox.
    • A massive amount of water is used during extracting the shale oil and shale gas treatment operations, which is considered as 4 m3 per 1 oil tone.
    • Groundwater contamination problem is one of the biggest challenges facing modern techniques that are based on processing oil shale in place (in-situ).
    • The destruction of nature if the thickness of the oil shale layer is small, this factor decreases when the thickness of the oil shale layer increases.

2.35 Unjustified Challenges:

Oil shale is a renewable energy source which can meet a simple equation that gives positive signals indicated in the circulation News of shale gas, and its entry as an equivalent energy alternative to bridge the strong lack of the needed energy. This equation is:


Oil Shale=coal+crude oil+natural gas

The present invention seeks to achieve and implement this equation m a commercial production scale, according to economic and environmental standards which have been achieved. The practical research emphasizes the successes that have been achieved in the extraction of shale gas, which will be the right solution to the puzzle mentioned in the shale gas extraction.

At some point while ago, the price of a barrel of crude oil was equal to 180 U.S. cents, and the cost of the refining was equal to 25 U.S. dollars per barrel. At a later stage, the price of a barrel of crude oil became equal to 180 U.S. dollars and the cost of the refining was equal to 5 U.S. dollars per barrel.

Despite the high cost of oil barrel and fast acceleration in increasing the oil barrel's price, and the heavy daily bill and its impact on national income. When, however, we present the idea of investing over oil shale, this idea is faced by large magnitude of disapproval because of the high initial investment in this area, which is estimated at about 2 billion U.S. dollars, the suffering story which begins with legislation difficulties, environmental considerations are complex, criticizing the use of huge amounts of water (4 m3 of water per 1 ton oil). For those criticizers, it should be asked: Are you forgetting or ignoring the fact that India, as an example of an average consumer pays a bill of $8 billion annually for the petroleum imported from SA in addition to the $4 billion U.S. dollar annually for the petroleum imported from Iran?

However, though 2 billion is not recognized as a big amount of money when compared with the cost of the used petrol; the investment in oil shale can cost no more than tens of Millions when it is directed to support one full city instead of the whole country, which is the most suitable investment in the oil shale.

Yes the investment in oil shale costs far less than one month bill for the consumed petroleum in U.S. or China!

Regarding the use of huge amount of water; the present invention's experiment shows that there is no need for any amount of water in the processes of the oil shale treatment. In fact, this method does produce water as 40 litres to 60 litres per 1 tone of oil shale, and this amount of water is able to be treated to be used in agriculture fields.

Regarding the environmental impact, it is enough just to mention that the present invention method does not use the direct combustion in the treatment processes, and it is totally under the environmental standard limit.

And finally, it can be confirmed that the resulting ash is highly suitable to be used in cement industry as shale cement which is equivalent to the well-known Portland cement.

At the top of the above challenges, there is a challenge in the research part; the research and development need to be in harmony of various disciplines which may be difficult to reconcile with each other, the beginning is with Geology, accompanied by survey, followed by mining and oil followed by chemistry and environment linked to economy but another question needs to be asked: If the experience of direct combustion of oil shale (experiment Estonia—Station Narva) is leading, why do not we apply and generalize this experience over various places of the world, taking into consideration the difference in quality between them and Estonian oil shale?

2.36 The Wrong Idea

The direct combustion to this good quality kind of oil shale:

The Estonian oil shale kind is regarded as superior quality of shale with heat content of 2800 kcal/kg and contains a very high organic material up to 40% of the rock weight and with a large proportion of the oil can be extracted out of the organic material (up to 26% of the rock weight). The oil shale with very low density compared to other rocks is an indicator of low proportion of inorganic materials.

2.36.1 Justifications for Resorting to the Direct Combustion Method:

Several practical problems appeared when extracting the shale oil in the Estonian experiment, and these reasons were behind appearing the need of using the direct combustion method. One of the most important problems is that, the extracted shale oil contains a very high percentage of olefins, in addition to high percentage of sulphur, nitrogen, oxygen and heavy metals therefore, cannot be directed to the refinery in order to separate the products, so, it is only used for direct combustion (ships fuel). Moreover, the extracted oil at that time was marketed at a lower rate than fuel oil, since fuel oil did not have a commercial market then. There were other factors, such as, the small size of the heaters, the very large number of labours, the absence of energy sources in the work area, the cost of a barrel of extracted shale oil which has no market at that time was very high when compared with the price of a barrel of oil, the high economic cost of treatment operations then, and the environmental impact accompanied with the extraction, mining and treatment processing operations.

The present invention's implemented experiment over oil shale with a heat content of 850 kcal/kg to 1585 kcal/kg shows such interesting results emphasizing that, it is now the time for the Estonian experiment to come to an end.

Regarding the in-situ shale oil treatment processes; this method requires limited mining operations that depend on injecting electrical conductor heating materials designed to heat the oil shale through the heat exchange process to extract the shale oil. This method achieves three main goals which are, reducing the economic cost of extracting barrels of oil, reducing the environmental impact accompanied with the process of extraction, and the salvation of the problem of ash which results from the operation of extracting the shale oil from the oil shale.

2.37 The Raised Difficulties:

In the in-site treatment method, several problems are faced, such as the following:

  • 7—The problem of groundwater contamination, and the associated ideas such as creating an ice wall around the place of the treatment process.
  • 8—The extracted shale oil quality and its chemical compounds and if possible to send the extracted shale oil to the refinery for refining and separation of its components or just use if for direct combustion purposes.
  • 9—The proportion of the organic matters stored in the oil shale roughly approaches 30% of the oil shale, which is the maximum amount of oil shale that can be benefited from; so, is the process of exploitation 30% of oil shale covers the economic cost incurred with acceptable margin of profits.
  • 10—When heating the earth layers that contain oil shale and the associated heat exchange processes with the surrounding medium, it must be taken into account the phenomena of global warming and climate change situations associated with the change of the earth temperature.
  • 11—Cement industry depends on the following raw materials: limestone, containing calcium carbonate CaCo3, clay containing the aluminium oxide AL2o3, sand Silica containing silicon oxide containing Sio2, basalt containing iron oxide Fe2o3 and gypsum containing CaSo42H2o. Taking into account that 47% of the cement industry cost is the cost of the thermal energy for heating, which is not taken into account. However, when using oil shale ash in the shale cement industry, this huge percentage and huge amount of consumed heating energy are taken into account.
  • 12—To understand the difference between using and not using oil shale ash in the cement industry, we carefully examine the following example of a practical experiment:

The result of treatment on a mixture of oil shale that was extracted from the Alsultani area in Jordan, with the lowest heat content of 850 kcal/kg to 1585 kcal/kg, the percentage of organic matter from 10% to 22% and the moisture content of 6% to 10%, the sulphur percentage range is from 0.5% to 2.8%.

The detailed results of this experiment are repeatedly shown in table 3 below (products per one tone of oil shale):

Measurement Heat Content Product Name Unit Quantity Per Unit Shale Gas Cubic meter (m3)  92 to 110 14800 kcal Shale Oil Litre (L)  80 to 100 10500 kcal Solid Fuel Kilo gram (Kg) 530 to 700  8000 kcal Solid Fuel Kilo gram (kg) 420 to 580 Industrial use Residual Water Litre (L) 40 to 60 in need for — purification Hot Air — Unmeasured and — can be industrially.

The solid fuel can be used to generate heat sufficient for the following industries: water desalination plants, textile industries, power generation, cement industry, glass industry and mining industries. Thus we confirm that this slogan is valid: ‘Oil is more precious than to be burnt’.

PRIOR ART

In the prior art, a dismantling process is disclosed in EP 0107477 A1. In this document, the highest temperature is 760 OC in EP 0107477 A1. The dismantling unit in EP 0107477 A1 is not in a furnace. The burning is not two steps burning.

The produced gas in EP 0107477 A1 is burned inside the dismantling unit. Whereas the produced gas in the present invention is an independent fuel product which is used outside of the system.

Produced hot air in EP 0107477 A1 doesn't go through washing unit and combustion waste precipitator. In the present invention the air is clean and tested to confirm that it is environmental friendly. The produced water in EP 0107477 A1 is just mentionable whereas in the present invention the amount produced water is 60 liter/ton which is such big amount of product. The quality of the produced shale oil and shale gas are tested and confirmed that they can directly be sent to the refinery without any treatment process and they are equal in the quality for the natural oil and natural gas; in EP 0107477 A1 neither the quality of the products nor the refinery process are mentioned. In the present invention the igniter which burns liquid or gas fuel is used to reach the temperature of 550 Degrees in the furnace which is the temperature that is needed to start burning the high energy solid fuel. In the furnace liquid or gas fuel is burned until the temperature reaches to 550° C., and then the liquid or gas fuel source is replaced with solid fuel to raise the temperature to 1000° C.,

EP 0107477 A1 discloses a dismantling unit to obtain only shale oil, shale gas, hot air and water but no solid fuel. The present invention additionally produces solid fuel.

The present invention can use all type of oil shale having any quality. In EP 0107477 A1 the quality of the used shale is not mentioned; however it is expected that EP 0107477 A1 cannot use low quality oil shale because it produces such small amount of shale gas which is needed in EP 0107477 A1 technology to reach 760° C.

Another prior art for the present invention is WO 2010-034621 A1. The highest temperature in this document is 780° C. All comments for EP 0107477 A1 are valid for WO 2010-034621 A1.

In addition; unlike the present invention; the solid fuel used in WO 2010-034621 A1 is brought from outside. In the present invention both of clean hot air and solid fuel are produced.

Another prior art for the present invention is US 2011-0068050 A1. The highest temperature in US 2011-0068050 A1 is 800° C. under high pressure (0.1 to 0.6 MPa and 1 atm plus 0.15 MPa). In the present invention all the system works under standard pressure to reach 100° C. High pressure is not needed in the present invention as it could result to explosion. Additionally in US 2011-0068050 A1; the process oil shale has to be in powder form (50-500 micrometres) after two stages of grinding. In the present invention; the oil shale is used not in powder form. The reactor in the present invention is a standard reactor which is completely different from the reactor in US 2011-0068050 A1, because the reactor in US 2011-0068050 A1 is fluidized bed reactor which is specially designed for the specific US 2011-0068050 A1 reactor.

All other comments for EP 0107477 A1 are valid for US 2011-0068050 A1.

Another prior art for the present invention is U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,615. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,615, the temperature is in between 1200° F. to 1500° F. (650° C. to 815° C.) in the presence of hydrogen-rich gas to form predominately low molecular weight paraffinic hydrocarbon gases from the preheated and prehydrogenated organic portion of the oil shales. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,615 the unit is not in vertical position. Additionally it doesn't use furnace and indirect heating principle.

In the present invention high speed (more than 5 m/sec) hot air without any additives is used to burn the fuel inside the furnace.

All other comments for EP 0107477 A1 are valid for U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,615.

Another prior art for the present invention is WO 2009 010157 A2. There are more than one heater in WO 2009 010157 A2. Reactor is outside of the furnace. Temperature at the furnace reaches to very high temperature (1050° C.) which is not required, because all organic materials are burned at above 1000° C. Temperature at the reactor is 800° C. and reactor is heated by direct combustion method. The process is continuous and 61 to 75% organic material are extracted.

In the present invention the reactor is inside the furnace and being heated indirectly. Moreover all (100%) of the organic materials are retrieved to obtain high quality shale gas, shale oil, and considerable amount of water and then the oil ash is taken out of the reactor to be cooled and then treated. The treated oil shale ash is then inserted inside the reactor to heat the new oil ash. Accordingly the process of the dismantling of the oil shale and oil shale ash used in the dismantling process in the present invention is performed in two separate (not continuous) methods.

Another prior art for the present invention is WO 2011 047446 A2. In WO 2011 047446 A2, an invention for improving quality of fuel which is different purpose is disclosed. In the disclosure there is no dismantling process. The process is based on microwave heating only,

Another prior art for the present invention is WO 2009 100840 A2. In the document WO 100840 A2 is similar to WO 2009 010157 A2. The comments for WO 2009 010157 A2 is also valid for WO 2009 100840 A2. Only the temperature in the reactor disclosed in WO 100840 A2 reaches 1000° C. All other features are different from the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to explain the present invention the following figures have been prepared. Explanation of the figures is below.

FIG. 1 shows the relation between the organic matter percentage and the density for the Alsmstrich era.

FIG. 2 shows the relation between the organic matter and the density for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 3 and 4 show the relation between the organic matters and the thermal content kcal/kg for the Almstrich and the Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 3 shows the relation between the organic matters and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 4 shows the relation between the organic matter and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 5 and 6 show the relation between the thermal content (kcal/kg) and the oil shale percentage for the Almstrich and Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 5 shows the relation between the shale oil and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 6 shows the relation between the shale oil percentage and the thermal content (kcal/kg) for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 7 and 8 show the relation between the organic sulphur percentage with the shale oil quality represented by C/H for the Almstrich and the Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 7 shows the relation between the organic matter percentage and the shale oil quality for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 8 shows the relation between the organic matter percentage and the shale oil quality for the Eocene era.

The FIGS. 9 and 10 show the relation between the organic sulphur percentage and the shale oil quality represented by C/H for the Almstrich and the Eocene eras respectively:

FIG. 9 shows the relation between the organic sulphur percentage and the organic matters percentage for the Almstrich era.

FIG. 10 shows the relation between the organic sulphur percentage and the organic matters percentage for the Eocene era.

FIG. 11 shows the oil shale processing methods.

FIG. 12: Thermal Dismantling Unit (the unit for oil shale processing to obtain final products which are shale oil, shale gas, hot air, water and ash where the ash is then treated to produce solid fuel s and solid fuel residue and other by-products from the residue.

FIG. 13: Pulling, condensing and vacuum unit (the unit for extracting shale gas, shale oil and water by pulling, condensing and vacuuming operations at low pressure)

FIG. 14: Gas pulling and liquidizing unit (the unit for extracting shale gas in its liquid form by pulling and liquidizing operations).

 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to explain the present invention better the features in the drawings have been numbered.

Their explanations are below.

    • 12.13—Reactor and furnace unit (reactor is in the furnace)
      • 12.1.1 Furnace
      • 12.1.2 Reactor
    • 12 14—Purification and combustion products washing unit
    • 12.15—Turbine (pull-push combustion products)
    • 12.16—Multi-stage heat exchanger and combustion waste precipitator
    • 12.17—Roasting, moisture pulling and oil shale drying unit
    • 12.18—Cooling and condensation unit related to the oil shale moisture
    • 12.19—Condensate water collection tank
    • 12.20—Nutrition unit entrance (roasting and drying unit)
    • 12.21—Centrifugation and pulling the washing outputs unit
    • 12.22—Centrifuge unit (pull, process, pushing) of the purified water
    • 12.23—Treatment water collection tank
    • 12.24—Combustion products exit after purification
    • 13.15—Reactor
    • 13.16—Compiling and condensing vapours of heavy components tower
    • 13.17—Intensification of Tower 1
    • 13.18—Intensification of Tower 2
    • 13.19—The distillates collection tank 1
    • 13.20—The distillates collection tank 2
    • 13.21—Viscosity breaking tower
    • 13.22—Vacuum tower
    • 13.23—Vacuum pump
    • 13.24—Gas gathering tank
    • 13.25—Glass distillates showing tower 1
    • 13.26—Glass distillates showing tower 2
    • 13.27—Centrifuge pump
    • 13.28—Distillate liquid collection tank
    • 14 11—Gas absorber device from the reservoir
    • 14.12—Pump fitted with a twin-engines (pull and push)
    • 14.13—Heat Exchanger
    • 14.14—Surveyor device
    • 14.15—Kettle
    • 14.16—Cooler—intensive
    • 14.17—Accumulator of spraying
    • 14.18—Rich gas entrance to be liquidized
    • 14.19—Poor gas outlet
    • 14.20—LNG as a major product

Explanation of each item (element) shown in the figures are below.

Thermal Dismantling Unit (FIG. 12) for oil shale processing to obtain final products which are shale oil, shale gas, hot air, water and ash where the ash is then treated to produce solid fuel and solid fuel residue and other by-products from the residue.

Reactor (12.1.1) and furnace (12.1.2) unit (12.1): To heat the oil shale using the heating exchange method to reach any temperature in between 600° C. to 3500° C. degrees. However, it works in between 850° C. to 1000° C. for processing oil shale. Reactor is placed inside of the furnace.

Purification and combustion products washing unit (12.2): To purify the combustion gases and depose the combustion wastes.

Turbine (pull-push combustion products) (12.3): To pull the combustion gases from inside the furnace and then push it to the washing and purification unit.

Multi-stage heat exchanger and combustion waste precipitator (12.4): To spread the hot air over the usage fields, besides helping in precipitating the combustion wastes associated with the fume.

Roasting, moisture pulling and oil shale drying unit (12.5): To dry the oil shale before inserting it into the furnace.

Cooling and condensation unit which is related to the oil shale moisture (12.5): To condense the moisture gases to convert it into water.

Condensate water collection tank (12.6): To collect the condensed water inside it.

Nutrition unit entrance (roasting and drying unit) (12.7): To provide oil shale for the roaster.

Centrifugation and pulling the washing outputs unit (12.8): To pull the water from the washing unit.

Centrifuge unit (pull, process, and push) of the purified water (12.9): To purify the water and wash the gases combustion wastes.

Treatment water collection tank (12.10): To collect the washed water.

Combustion products exit after purification (12.11): The exit path of the treated combustion gases.

In the reactor (12.1.2) and furnace (12.1.1) unit (12.1), the oil shale placed in the reactor (12.1.1) is heated indirectly because the temperature in the reactor must not exceed 1000° C. because the organic materials are burnt above 1000° C. and it is impossible to obtain any shale gas or shale oil at any temperature higher than 1000° C.

Pulling, condensing and vacuum unit (FIG. 14) for extracting shale gas, shale oil and water by pulling, condensing and vacuuming operations at low pressure comprises the following elements.

Reactor (13.1): To heat the oil shale in an indirect way to reach any temperature in between 850° C. to 1000° C.

Compiling and condensing vapours of heavy components tower (13.2): To pull and condense the heavy materials.

Intensification of Tower 1 (13.3): To condense initially produced gases.

Intensification of Tower 2 (13.4): To condense light gases.

The distillates collection tank 1 (13.5): To collect the distillate liquids that are condensed in Tower 1.

The distillates collection tank 2 (13.6): To collect the distillate liquids that are condensed in Tower 2.

Viscosity breaking tower (13.7): To condense the maximum possible amount of gases.

Vacuum tower (13.8): To collect the gases coming from the reactor

Vacuum pump (13.9): To pull the volatile gases through the processing.

Gas gathering tank (13.10): To collect the uncondensed gases.

Glass distillates showing tower 1 (13.11): To view the products and to separate the water from the shale oil coming from Tower 1.

Glass distillates showing tower 2 (13.12): To view the products and to separate the water from the shale oil coming from Tower 2.

Centrifuge pump (3.13): To pull the shale oil from the glasses Tower and then pump it to the oil collection tank.

Distillate liquid collection tank (13.14): To collect the liquids.

Gas pulling and liquidizing unit (FIG. 14) for extracting the shale gas in its liquid form by pulling and liquidizing operations comprises the following elements.

Gas absorber device from the reservoir (14.1): To absorb the gas from the gas tank to prepare it to be liquefied.

Pump fitted with twin-engines (pull and push) (14.2): To pull the liquidized gas.

Heat Exchanger (14.3): To cool gas under liquidizing process.

Surveyor device (14.4): To purify the gases from the joined liquids.

Kettle (14.5): To initially heat the gas.

Cooler-intensive (14.6): To cool the gas.

Accumulator of spraying (14.7): To wash the gases and to separate the liquids.

Rich gas entrance to be liquidized (14.8): The entrance of the gas that is under liquidizing process.

Poor gas outlet (14.9): The outer of the poor gas.

LNG as a major product (14.10): The liquidized gas.

Introduction:

Everything started with treating oil shale as an expected source of energy, so, after studying the available technologies for processing the oil shale, it was found that there are two main directions to deal with the oil shale:

The first direction is the extraction of organic materials from oil shale by using chemical solvents.

It was understood that, when using this technique, the extracted organic materials were not usable in order to extract fuel as they were just complicated carbohydrate materials. Moreover, the price of the solvent is high besides the difficulty of providing large quantities of this material enough to extract organic material for hundreds of thousands of tons of oil shale per day.

The resulting ash from this technique is huge in quantity and cannot be used in the industrial field.

Then the second main direction of treating the oil shale was taken, which is the direct combustion method.

It was understood that this technique requires large and expensive mining operations; moreover, this technique needs expensive burning system equipment. The resulting ash is huge in quantity and it is unusable in the industrial fields, as well as huge amounts of water is needed for the combustion and the transfer operations as for the huge evaporating operations that result in losing large amounts of water during the process of power generation and finally the environmental effects associated to the extraction operation is unacceptable.

Based on what has been stated above, the final conclusion was, to be able to deal with the oil shale in an investable manner; a new technique must be used to modify the old technique's problems and to be profitable in terms of the expected capital.

The Fisher scale was adopted in the scientific research work to determine the shale oil and the shale gas percentage existing in oil shale. Moreover, it was understood that the utilization of the oil shale with the proportion of organic matter of 25% or below cannot be transformed into an investment project, as long as the cost of a barrel of shale oil extraction is linked to the price of an oil barrel. Accordingly, a device was developed handling (3) kg of oil shale for (22) minutes to process the oil shale without using the direct combustion method to avoid using oil as a source of thermal energy, and by auditing most of the data and analysing the results; building an industrial unit that can process (50 tons\day) in a way totally unlinked to the oil was carried out. Through standard operating; several technical challenges were faced to set (800 to 900) kg of oil shale to be processed within (27-32) minutes.

It is important to emphasize that the chosen treatment temperature in our reactor is between 850° C. to 1000° C.; the reason why only this range is used is based on the fact that the resulting shale oil at a temperature less than 600° C. needs to be directed to the Hydrogenation process as its quality is poor and its quantity is small.

On the other hand, the organic materials burning temperature is 1000° C., which means that it is impossible to obtain any shale gas or shale oil at any temperature higher than this.

Three thousand, four hundred and twenty (3420) practical experiments had been performed and all the results were recorded and well investigated, and after all that work and results, the unique method to process oil shale was confirmed. This technique runs from the mining extraction, based on mining warming and applying the principle of thermal dismantling. Most importantly; this technique does not use the conventional energy sources as the source of thermal energy for the direct combustion; instead, the present invention uses the produced solid fuel to continue the oil shale process.

This means that the present invention's technology can process the average quality of oil shale with average thermal content to yield profit that exceeds the profit when processing high quality oil shale based on the principle of direct combustion treatment such as the Estonian oil shale process method.

The world's need for enormous amounts of clean, cheap and sustainable energy is the main gate for the oil shale industry.

In parallel to producing fuel as primary products; the present invention beholds a promising future to meet the requirements of other industries' materials such as manufacturing (plastics, medicine, dyes, fertilizers, pesticides), in addition to well perform the famous slogan which says: ‘Oil is too precious to be burnt’.

This research is based on solid scientific facts which are:

    • Chemical reactions get processes of (abandon-share-displacement-transmission-provide-forming) of an electron or more from the surface electrons of atoms among the combined materials. Accordingly, two types of chemical reactions, which are quick unidirectional reactions and slaw unidirectional reactions, are distinguished.
    • Starting from the oil extraction method by mining and relying on the thermal dismantling process to separate the biochem prong from the organic prong.
    • Ensuring appropriate conditions for the forming of liquid and gaseous compounds of volatile vapours during the extraction process.
    • The chemistry depends on the inorganic and organic industries, accordingly, the processes of treatment, extraction, separation and purification start from the science of chemistry, so, the oil shale with its raw compound materials is regarded as an essential corner stone for these industries (organic and inorganic industries).

Research was carried out on the following stages:

Applications to the Natural Resources Authority were carried out to extract the amount of (10,000) tons of oil shale to be our experimental raw material. This request was approved by the authority, but that approval was conditioned with several requirements which were:

    • Providing a plan to extract the requested (10,000) tons of oil shale.
    • Submitting a plan to rehabilitate the site.
    • Paying fees per (1) extracted ton.
    • Submitting a report to show the environmental impact assessment in accordance with the Jordanian Ministry of Environment standards.
    • Providing a bank guarantee for the implementation of the business.
    • Establishing a company to perform the business, and register this company with the Jordanian Ministry of Trade and Industry to oversee the implementation of the requirements.

All the above requests were successfully carried out and the full amount of (10,000) tons of oil shale were extracted, crushed, and then transported to Ma'an Development City (MDA) where a processing unit to perform the experiment process was built.

After renting a piece of land; the approvals related to import the industrial unit were obtained, which have been imported and interred to Jordan through Jaber border port and then declared in the centre of Amman Customs to pay the required fees and customs.

Moving to MDA took place after the second industrial unit was approved and declared, to start the work. Engineering plans were developed for the construction of the industrial unit and the distribution of the units partial thereto over the working land. The standard operating processes began accompanied by extensive modifications mainly in the development of oil shale treatment mechanism. At the beginning, several mechanisms were used and all of them failed to give us the desired results that fulfil the high standard ambition. After performing several studies and recording the observations of unsuccessful applications, further researches to develop a way for the optimum oil shale setting mechanism inside the reactor was done and all the application stage goals were achieved. The optimum way could be described as the way that gives the best outcome in terms of product amount and quality, regarding the other side effects to be within the acceptable limits such as environmental impacts, the treatment time and cost.

The reason why the technique does not have any disastrous sequences even when applied in a very wide range is the fact that the present invention performs the heating process that does not depend on pressure (which makes the possibility of explosions to be nil), moreover, no solvents or catalysts materials are used (which makes the possibility of dangerous reactions to be nil) during the components separation processes of the oil shale, finally, no enrichment operations are used and concentration of the shale before subjected to treatment which makes the technique fully aware with the materials under treatment with no unexpected bad surprises.

Specifications of the oil shale used in the research experience:

The table below shows the specifications of the oil shale under the research:

Measurement Test Name Unit Value and Degree Density of the rock —   2-2.6 The volumetric weight of the rock Tons m3 1.2-2.5 The proportion of organic matter Percentage 10-23 Total sulphur percentage Percentage 0.8-2.8 Humidity Percentage  6-10 Rigidity coefficient according Degree 3-5 to standard Yaconofa Durability limit when pressure Pascal  105 × (130-800) Durability limit when withdrawal Pascal 105 × (15-80) Durability limit when mowing Pascal 105 × (10-50) The difficulty of drilling Degree 3-4 Difficulty bombing Kg/m3 0.2-0.3 Difficulty cliff Degree 3-7 The difficulty of extracting Degree 3-5

The two tables below show the results of organic and non-organic chemistry lab tests carried out on a sample of oil shale:

TABLE 1 the results of organic chemistry lab tests carried out on a sample of oil shale. Brohole iNat-4 iNat-4 iNat-4 iNat-5 iNat-5 iNat-5 iNat-8 Calorific Value kcal 774.58 1547.72 1598.5 2026 1210 1221 1088 C-organic wt. % 10.12 10.88 12.66 12.07 11.04 11.35 8.94 Total S wt % 1.15 2.64 2.94 2.05 1.36 1.43 1.4 Total H wt. % 1.27 1.84 1.97 1.73 1.61 1.67 1.25 Total C wt. % 19.76 16.08 21.18 23.74 20.39 20.68 20.75 Gas loss wt. % 5.26 3.97 5.76 5.95 4.84 2.64 1.84 Spent shale wt. % 88.2 84.45 82.94 82.63 86.64 86.64 90.22 Total oil wt % 4.74 8.85 10 9.67 9.34 9.3 7.34 Total water wt % 1.8 3 1.3 1.75 1.40 1.60 1.2 Mixture content MT % — — — — — — 0.66 From (m) 95 105 115 70 90 95 116 To (m) To To To To To To To 100 110 120 75 95 100 120 Sample 2130 2287 2292 2197 2211 2212 2153

TABLE 2 The results of non-organic chemistry lab tests carried out on a sample of oil shale. iNaT-4 iNaT-5 Brehole Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 INaT-8 L.O.I 26.5 45.2 43.20 45.4 46.5 46 46.3 K2O 5.22 5.2 5.11 5.22 5.21 5.21 5.59 SO3 2.8 1.37 1.87 .02 0.36 0.44 0.16 Na2O 0.08 0.22 0.07 0.17 0.1 0.11 0.07 MgO 9.05 0.35 0.45 0.61 0.51 0.53 0.51 Al2O3 1.8 2.09 1.22 1.81 1.71 1.75 1.12 SiO2 16.2 10.08 7.56 9.72 9.72 9.53 10 P2O5 2.16 0.99 2.97 1.72 1.66 1.72 0.86 CaO 28.5 29.8 41.5 36.9 37 37.8 45.5 TiO2 0.08 0.1 0.05 0.08 0.08 0.08 0.05 MnO 0.001 0.002 0.002 0.001 0.002 0.001 0.001 Fe2O3 0.71 0.79 0.44 75 95 100 0.57 From (m) 105 115 95 70 90 95 116 To (m) to to to to to to to 110 120 100 100 95 75 120 Sample 2287 2292 2130 2212 2211 2197 2153

Operations to be carried out:

    • Secondary crushing-screening-Screening the berries volume-packing-weighing-assembling.
    • Disposal of small volumes—the adoption of the ideal sizes (1.5-3 cm) are favourable and approximately equal or similar sizes are desired to be gathered on the same tray.
    • The thermal dismantling unit is heated using liquid fuel (1) until it reaches the degree of (650° C.). The usage of liquid fuel (1) is ceased and then its injector is removed. At this stage the usage of solid fuel starts and the solid fuel is used until the end of the treatment. So, the liquid fuel is used (1) only to start the operation and its consumption is estimated at about (100-110) litres in order to reach the necessary start up temperature. Regarding the usage of solid fuel; the amount used to produce the thermal energy used in the treatment processes could not be considered as a problem since the usage of the solid fuel creates raw material for other industries.
    • When the degree of dispersion (the degree where the organic maters start to be separated from the inorganic maters) is approached, the lid of the reactor (FIG. 12.1) is opened to insert full trays of more oil shale by a crane, to be treated inside the reactor (FIG. 12.1), then the lid is closed again and the process of mining extraction begins.
    • The quantity which is subjected to the treatment process is (820-890) kg of oil shale.
    • Oil shale under treatment lasts for (27-31) minutes inside the reactor (FIG. 12.1) to be fully treated.

There are several indicators to signal the end of the mineral extraction process, when the lid of the reactor (FIG. 12.1) is opened by the crane to raise the group of trays. The trays are then placed into the isolation chambers.

When the extremely hot trays contact air; a good care must be taken not to form a big flame, specifically when there is high speed air currency.

After moving the hot trays to the isolation chambers to be isolated; the new full trays are entered into the reactor and after closing the reactor lid the new treatment process starts again. This periodic process is being repeated again and again.

Example

In the mineral extraction operations; the required temperature is in the range of 600° C. to 1000° C., while the temperature in the combustion centre is 1450° C. It can be seen that, any temperature can be achieved and controlled. So, this type of solid fuel can easily be introduced to the mining industries that require temperatures above of 2,000° C.; in fact up to 3500° C. can be achieved; all what is needed to achieve this temperature is, to add the proper additive materials to the ash and to modify the burning system till achieving the temperature that is required to work under its limit.

When performing any test; the following operations must be implemented and monitored:

  • 16—Strict tests are to be performed for the burner, -towers-vacuum pumps-assisting pumps-cooling cycle-motors-solid fuel mixer-crusher-sieve, by relying on sensors and pressure and temperature meters, and by using compressors (by pressing).
  • 17—Readings should be taken for the meters of (electricity-water-liquid fuels (1) and liquid fuels (2), and make sure of the necessary amount of gas and oil in the compressors, cooling unit and a vacuum unit.
  • 18—Maintain all valves and make sure all the opening valves must be in “open” condition as well as closing valves that must be in “closed” condition.
  • 19—Prepare suitable and measured quantity of the solid fuel and make it ready to be used.
  • 20—Prepare a balanced amount of oil shale to be subjected to the treatment process and distributed on trays, where the estimated quantity to the processed oil shale is from (800 to 870) kg and it is chosen with a good care to be from a specific balanced quality.
  • 21—Start operating the burner which works with diesel (fuel (1)). The starting operation point is recorded with the temperature of the furnace at that moment of starting the experiment, keep monitoring and recording the temperature data that serve the experiment till the furnace temperature reaches to 550° C.; when the temperature inside the furnace is 550° C., the solid fuel is then inserted into the furnace where the burner of the diesel is completely stopped and removed.
  • 22—The high-pressure turbine works with a small frequency, whenever the temperature stops rising in the furnace; the air stream is then changed, and then continue refueling the furnace with solid fuel till reaching the temperature of 850 to 100° C.
  • 23—Cooling cycle is early run to secure the amount of cold water which is estimated at 5 m3 and the temperature of cooling water is 2 to 6° C. to be used in the cooling processes throughout the mineral extraction processes.
  • 24—When the furnace temperature approaching the degree of dispersion 850 to 1000° C. (the degree to which the organic prong is separated from the inorganic prong), the reactor lid is opened and the oil shale bearer trays are then inserted into the reactor by the crane, the reactor lid is then closed, observing the reactor temperature which will decrease till it reaches a stable and fixed temperature. When the reactor temperature starts rising again, the high value of the pressure on the pressure meters is noted; accordingly, the pressure vacuum pumps are then run. In addition, the cold water pumps are then run and the heat exchange processes are observed between the volatile fumes and cold water.
  • 25—There are physical indicators of the extraction completion such as temperature changes for the pulling tubes, pressure changes of vacuum meters and the stability of the pressure value at a certain value so that it does not rise beyond.
  • 26—The reactor lid is opened by the crane; the trays are pulled and put in isolation rooms to avoid the resulting flame from contacting the hot trays to air, so they are totally isolated from the outside atmosphere.
  • 27—The reactor lid is then closed, and the new readings are taken for electricity—water—liquid fuel (1), and then the products are withdrawn, where the shale gas is gathered in the tank outside the unit, so the process of calculating the shale gas quantity is available and easy. The shale oil is measured while mixed with water, and then the mixture is injected into glass towers of which the oil is separated from the water.
  • 28—The trays are then withdrawn from the isolation rooms and then weighed before being discharged. The weight before and after the treatment is matched; to make sure that the law of mass conservation and functioning of the energy flow is maintained.
  • 29—The data relating to the operation of the experiment (furnace temperature changes—the amount of spent fuel—electricity consumed amount—the amount of water consumed, the amount of air) are provided. These amounts are accurately referred to, and they are almost fixed in every experiment, which is regarded as a positive indicator of the accuracy and the success of the experiments.
  • 30—When the goal is to ensure the continuity and the stability of the products properties and maintaining their quality, and testing the solid fuel to ensure its ability to perform its role in a proper way; new trays which are filled with the almost the same amount of oil shale are prepared; and then inserted into the reactor. The same steps are repeated again. When performing the experiment, the following facts to verify the law of mass conservation should be taken into account: The time it takes to raise the temperature of the furnace from 20 to 600° C. is 120 to 130 minutes, the quantity of diesel consumed during this period is 100 to 110 litres, the amount of electricity consumed is from 200 kw to 220 kw, the amount of water consumed is estimated by 0 L, and the quantity of oil consumed is very limited and the oil is replaced after every 20 experiences.

Modules ideal for processing oil shale that can treat from 1200 to 1300 tons per day have been designed and studied. The following table shows the quantities of oil shale to be processed and the products:

Treatment Heat content per Industrial Module The total heat Product name Unit products/ton unit Unit 50 tons/day 1200-1300 tons/day content Kcal/kg Shale gas M3 110-135 12800 kcal/kg 5500-6750 1.32 × 105-1.755 × 105 1.6896 × 109-2.2464 × 109 Oil Shale L  95-115 10300 kcal/kg 4750-5750 1.14 × 105-1.495 × 105  1.1742 × 109-1.53985 × 109 Ash Kg 730-770 — 3.65 × 104-3.85 × 104 8.76 × 105-1.001 × 106 solid fuel Kg  940-1010  8000 kcal/kg  4.7 × 104-5.05 × 104 1.128 × 106-1.313 × 106   9.024 × 109-1.0504 1010 solid fuel Kg 700-760 — 3.5 × 104-3.8 × 104 8.4 × 105-9.88 × 104 — residual Water L 45-65 — 2250-3250  5.4104-8.45 × 104 — Hot air M3 — — — — — Total 7.359.800 — 367.990.000 1.18878 × 1010-1.429025 × 1011 — thermal kcal

3. Practical Experiments

3.1 Introduction

in this section, former experiments that have been performed in Estonia and Germany are shown, and then both are compared with the experiments of the present invention.

3.2 Processing Experiment of Rich Shale Oil (Estonia):

The experiment used the direct combustion method over rich oil shale, which was processed in the steam station No. 2, near the town of Narva in Estonia.

The station is the largest station ever that exploits oil shale using the direct combustion processes method to generate electric power. The electric capacity is 1600 Mw. The station includes eight groups; the generation capacity is 200 Mw for each. The only source of energy available in the Republic of Estonia is oil shale, which is extracted from surface mines with a cover thickness of 2 meters and a shale layer thickness of 2.75 meters. There are interface layers placed between oil shale layers. Oil shale is prepared in the mine in the form of blocks with dimensions of (1×1×1) m. The block is then fed into a crasher; the dimensions of pieces are (25×25×25) mm, which is then fed to mills with hammers to leave as beads of dimensions of 100 Micro metres to 200 Micro metres. The resulting power is then dried to get rid of the moisture before it is sent to the furnace, where the shale powder is puffed into the furnace through eight distributors around the furnace. The temperature in the furnace reaches 1400° C., so, huge amounts of hot air (primary and secondary), water and steam to complete the combustion operation are needed. The temperature of the steam when leaving the furnace is 450° C. and the pressure is 105 bars.

Reminders:

1) One kilowatt hours need 3000 kcal of heat energy, regardless of the energy source.

2) One ton of oil shale costs 23 U.S.D for extracting and mining operations.

3.2.1 Shale Specifications used in Direct Combustion Processes:

    • Heat content of: 2400 kcal/kg to 2800 kcal/kg.
    • Organic matter percentage in the oil shale: 32% to 36% of the oil shale weight
    • Sulphur percentage: 1.8% to 2.8%.
    • Humidity: 12% to 16%.
    • The station consumption: 10 Million tons to 12 Million tons per year.
    • The station capacity: 9 billion kilowatt hours per year.
    • Average kilowatt hour per oil shale: 1.25 kg oil shale per kilowatt hour.
    • Station size: 300 hectares.
    • Ash storage space size: 1000 hectares.

The resulted shale oil ash from the direct combustion per year is estimated by 6 million tons, which is removed from the station using pumped water as means of transportation, and then deposited in specific locations.

The resulted ash from the direct combustion process is used in several areas such as:

    • Soil fertilizer to modify the acidity: 25%.
    • Block cements industry: 10%.
    • Sand for construction work: 15%.
    • Road Paving: 10%.
    • The remaining 40% is transported by water and stored outdoors.
    • Electrostatic precipitators are used to purify the smoke produced by combustion processes.
    • The amount of water needed to perform the overall mentioned operations is:
    • 55 m3/s; 200.000 m3/h is needed for ash transport processes, and most of the quantity is recycled after the deposition.
    • 0.45 m3/s; 40.000 m3/day is needed to compensate the lost water in the operations.
    • 5.5 m3/s; 20.000 m3/h is needed for the capacitors cooling system.

This is accurate information about the cost of production of 1 kWh of electricity and the accompanied requirements.

3.3 Processing Experiment of Poor Oil Shale (Germany):

This experiment is based on the direct combustion process, extracting 700 tons per day of oil shale from the mine; the extracted quantity is transformed to the cement plan by trucks to pass through the following treatment processes: cracking till obtaining grains with dimensions of 10 mm, then pushed to the homogeneous mixing unit, and then the direct combustion at equal degrees. The obtained products from the direct combustion process have fixed specifications as it is used as one of the fundamental components of the cement. Thus, the units of mixing and homogenization are fed with the oil shale through the cracker and preparation unit.

This heterogeneous mixture is then fed into the furnace from the top with the necessary air to complete the burning. The air is processed by being pressed through jet distributors located on the perimeter of the furnace, to distribute the combustion on a regular basis in the entire furnace; even at the bottom.

The combustion of the oil shale operations are performed at temperatures of 800° C. to 850° C., the surface of the combustion increases at the upper part of the furnace, till the fully combustion process is performed.

The high rates of heat transfer and turbulent movements inside the furnace lead to increase of the oil shale temperature very quickly, leading to the ignition of oil shale and this requires feeding the furnace with additional quantities of combustion materials to maintain a constant temperature inside the furnace.

The heat in contact with the combustion gases coming out of the furnace is used in the production of steam through the boiler, which is connected with a generator and turbine.

Based on this construction to generate the electricity; we need 30 tons/h of water steam, steam temperature of 450° and steam pressure of 42 bar, to generate 3 Megawatt.

Products of the combustion are withdrawn from the bottom of the furnace, cooled and mixed with the soft parts that are related to the combustion gases process, and then stored in silos attached to the manufacturer of cement, the result compounds are then milled and mixed with the clinker that is produced from the rotary furnace in the traditional way, as a result of these operations, shale cement is manufactured, which is equivalent to the well-known Portland cement.

Combustion products is characterized by the property of using water as an interaction intimidator due to the thermal conditions of the furnace, so an electrostatic deposition unit is needed for purifying the combustion gases before directing it to the chimney.

3.3.1 Factory Production

Oil Shale Cement:

It is contented of 70% of clinker and 30% of the oil shale combustion products. The property of using the water as an interaction intimidator, of this type of cement is perfectly matched to the properties of Portland cement at low amount of heat. The annual output of the plant is 300,000 tons.

Road-Paving Materials:

It is contented of 30% of clinker and 70% of the oil shale combustion products.

The economic data for this experiment are:

    • 8—The ratio of the cement rock that is produced to the road paving material is (1:1) which is equal to 200,000 tons each.
    • 9—The heat content of the oil shale used in the combustion process is 950 kcal/kg.
    • 10—The 1.45 kg of the oil shale gives 1 kg of the oil shale combustion products.
    • 11—The 1.45 kg of the oil shale gives, 1 kg of the shale cement or 1 kg of road pavement materials, taking into consideration that, 1.45 kg of oil shale gives when burned 1460 kcal.
    • 12—The final yield of the power plant is 25% of the total generated power. Which is justified by the low heat content of the oil shale (950 kcal/kg), and the small size of the power station. Accordingly, the net amount of electricity generated from burning 1.4 kg of oil shale is 0.42 kilowatt-hours.
    • 13—The amount of the required oil shale is (200,000×1.45) tons per year and combustion products of 308,000 tons per year. The net amount of electricity generated is (200,000×0.42)=84,000 kilowatt-hour.
    • 14—The power station plan consumes 10% of the generated power, so, the remaining amount of energy is 75600 MW/h, accordingly, the total generated power is 11.7 MW when assuming that one working year is equal to 7200 working hours.

Finally, we should realize that the price of the 200,000 tons of the combustion products should cover the unfixed cost that is spent to produce the required clinker.

3.3.2 Conclusion of the Germany Experiment:

The shale oil used in this factory has two utilities; generating the necessary power for the operation of the plant, and raising the production capacity of cement plant

3.4 Processing Experiment of Average Oil Shale (Jordan):

This experiment based on the extraction of oil shale from the mine, and then subjected to mining and initializing operations before entering it to the processing unit to extract shale gas, shale oil and ash.

An application to the Natural Resources Authority had been submitted in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to extract 10,000 tons of oil shale from Alsultani opened miner. Jordanian government required several things for the approval of the Action Plan, which were, obtaining the environmental impact assessment approval, submit the Action Plan for the extraction of the sample, and the rehabilitation of the site after the extraction of the sample. The three requests had been implemented and the sample was extracted and transferred to the area of development in the Jordanian city of Ma'an. Experiments of the standard operation were carried out to adjust the industrial half unit operation processes that can handle 50 tons per day in order to implement a continuous experiment to be sure from the stability of the product specifications drawn from the treatment processes. The main objective of this technique is to transform this scientific research project to an industrial project with commercial production, economically viable and consistent with the environmentally allowed standards for soil, water, air and life.

The strategic dimension of this technique is to achieve the following equation:


Oil shale=Coal+Crude oil+Natural Gas.

It is based on the law of conservation of mass, which is derived from the law of conservation of energy, and the law of the determinants of energy which is based on energy conversion processes from one to another.

3.4.1 Specifications of the Oil Shale Used in the Present Invention's Experiment are:

    • Density: 2.1 to 2.6
    • Volumetric weight: 1.3-2.5 ton/m3.
    • Heat content of the oil shale: 859 kcal/kg-1585 kcal/kg.
    • Organic matter percentage in the oil shale: 10%-22% of total weight of oil shale.
    • Sulphur percentage: 0.5%-2.8% of total weight of oil shale.
    • Humidity: 6%-10% of the total weight of oil shale.
    • Rigidity coefficient\degrees a Yaconov recession: 6-9 degrees.
    • Durability limit at displacement: (17 to 78)×10° Pascal.
    • Durability limit when the pressure: (170 to 920)×10° Pascal.
    • Durability limit when pull: (21 to 10)×10° Pascal.

Processes that are needed for the treatment process are: extraction, transport, initial cracking, secondary cracking, packaging (so that the dimensions of the grains would be from 1.5 cm to 3 cm and preferably with equal/similar dimensions), and entering the unit of the thermal dismantling. The quantity of the treatment amount of oil shale is 1 ton, and the treatment period is from 22 minutes to 27 minutes. Water is not used during the treatment process.

When an experiment on approximately 1 ton of oil shale during the period mentioned above (22 minutes to 27 minutes) is performed, the products in table 5 are obtained:

TABLE 5 The table displays the obtained products from 1 ton oil shale using the present invention's technique. Total Heat heat Product Measurement content per content name unit Quantity unit (kcal) kcal Shale gas Cubic meter  92 to 110 14800 1494800 (m3) Shale oil Litre (L)  80 to 100 10500 945000 Solid Fuel Kilo gram (Kg) 530 to 700 80001 4920000 Solid Fuel Kilo gram (kg) 420 to 580 Industrial — Residual use Water Litre (L) 40 to 60 in need Purified for — for purification agricultural use Hot air — Unmeasured and — — can be used industrially. Total amount of heat kcal 7395800

When comparing the experiment of the present invention, which have already been implemented over an average quality oil shale, heat content of 850 to 1585 kcal/kg and the percentage of organic matter is from 10 to 22%, the reliable results show that all of the products which are treated from 1 ton of oil shale give a total of thermal energy estimated at 7.395 million kcal as shown in the main results table.

If the results have a direct comparison of energy resulting from the Estonian experiment which is implemented over a superior quality of 2800 kcal/kg and 40% organic matters, the treatment for this type of high-quality shale gives the thermal energy with a total capacity of approximately 2.8 million kcal per ton for all products derived by the direct combustion manner.

The superiority of the present technology in oil shale processing can be easily seen and that direct combustion would not be used any longer.

Indeed, with a much lower quality oil shale than the quality of the Estonian oil shale, more than three folds of the thermal energy, which has a better environmental impact and cheaper treatment cost, would be obtained. Moreover, it is a vital point to confirm that this experiment produces 40 to 60 litres of water, which is unlike the Estonian experiment that needs a huge amount of water. In addition, the resulting ash from the present invention is much better for the industry and less in the amount from the Estonian experiment.

Based on the above mentioned direct and realistic comparison; it can be said that it is advised and recommended that the Estonians direct combustion method of treatment is less effective than the present invention.

Finally, it is important to clarify that the burning of the sources of energy is not the only way and not necessary to turn product sources of energy to heat energy, for example wet gas shale can be directed to the areas of petrochemicals, shale oil is directly subjected to the refinery, and then its products are separated and directed to the industries of: Plastic, Fertilizers, Pharmaceuticals, dyes, and pesticides in addition to its use as a type of fuel.

Leading Improvement Techniques in Oil Shale

  • 3—The remainder of oil shale treatment process is around 56% to 86% of the weight of the oil shale which is nothing but ash. The quality of this ash has been the main impediment to deter the oil shale industry's progress. However, adding appropriate additives to this ash to change it into a type of solid fuel called solid fuel makes it possible to be used in the internal thermal energy in various industrial fields, from water purification/desalination to the mineral industries.
  • 4—The remainder from burning the solid fuel is then called solid fuel residual, which is an important raw material for the manufacturing of cement and other building materials, if fact; additives can be added to the solid fuel at the first step to end up with ready clinker after burning the solid fuel.
  • 24—The economic feasibility of extracting oil and gas from shale is connected to the price of crude oil, and its various by-products (whether this involves the on-site shallow treatment, or off-site treatment of oil shale). The price of extracting a barrel of oil shale has been totally segregated from the cost of the traditional energy sources and their by-products, thus confirming that the oil shale industry cannot succeed as long as it is dependent on the cost of extracting a barrel of petroleum.
  • 25—There is a lack of a focused inclination to invest in oil shale. Direct combustion, liquefaction, milling and distillation, and on-site and off location treatment, are all options that have been put forth to heat oil shale. A method to treat oil shale has been developed, and its experience has succeeded in producing the following by-products: shale gas, shale oil, solid fuel, solid fuel residual, water and hot air.
  • 26—The methods normally used in the treatment of oil shale require consumption of massive amounts of water. Techniques used for the treatment of oil shale do not consume any amount of water, in fact water is considered as a by-product of this treatment technique in terms of 40 L to 60 L per 1 treated ton.
  • 27—The extracted shale oil by using different methods; whether it involves on-site or out-site extraction methods, is not sent to the refineries, is not used in the petro-chemical industries, and is not fit for burning. In fact, it needs to be treated and stabilized; its thermal standard is low, it is saturated with unstable active components, and it contains nitrogen elements, sulphur, and oxygen, in addition to various heavy minerals. Therefore, it must be put through a treatment unit prior to being refined to eliminate these components. Only then can this be considered for a refining process. These problems have been successfully modified in the shale oil quality and type resulting to extracting such good quality shale oil and shale gas which are very similar to natural gas and petroleum of the Middle East. The present invention's shale oil can be immediately directed to the refinery in the same way the Middle East oil is directed.
  • 28—The specifications of shale oil and shale gas, and solid fuel, have been met in terms of quantity and quality. Water and energy consume a major portion of a country's budget, and are considered big challenges to the human race. Thus, based on the principles of energy flow, and those of safeguarding energy, oil shale has been employed completely in industrial processes, in addition to the heat energy used, and the water that is extracted.
  • 29—The present invention has met the international criteria for scientific research, beginning with the Fisher Apparatus using 100 g of oil shale, and has identified a wide range of data about oil shale which has been proven. This was followed with an experimental apparatus that can treat up to 3 kg, which participated in increasing the database and proving vital values that can be depended on for the treatment process. This was an introduction to the building of a semi-industrial unit with the ability to treat one ton every 30 minutes. The treatment processes were based on a scientific methodology that is also economically, as well as environmentally feasible.
  • 30—When extracting oil shale, mining it and preparing it for treatment, the present invention does not undertake any enrichment processes, and does not use solvents in the treatment process, moreover, does not consume any water or any gas such as (H2O(9)-H2-CO2—CO) to separate the organic from the non-organic elements. The invention bases its technology from the method of the formation of the oil itself, and its migration to the final base.
  • 31—The ideal time for the extraction of oil and gas from shale is 18-22 minutes for the quantity that is needed to treat it, irrespective of how much, and this is relevant to the thermal dissolution unit which depends on the time of thermal energy exchange between the quantity of oil being treated and the dissolution unit. The invention then has a state of thermal stability after which it starts the extraction process, which ends with the production of (shale gas-shale oil-solid fuel-solid fuel residue-water and hot air).
  • 32—The techniques that are currently being used have failed to achieve the economic and environmental feasibility standards, and have therefore focused on developing heating methods, failing to segregate the process of extracting a barrel of shale oil, from the process of extracting a barrel of crude oil (petroleum). Additionally, these techniques have failed to prove the values they have included in the economic feasibility studies that they presented. The reality of extracting a barrel of oil shale rises with the on-going cultural progress that people live in.
  • 33—The present invention on the other hand, is accurately able to prove and set the temperature at which organic elements separate from non-organic ones, and has created the appropriate environment for the formation of the chemical bonds between the weak radicals, which has made oil shale highly similar to crude oil, and shale gas similar to natural gas.
  • 34—The way petroleum is formed is based on the presence of large amounts of organic matter, and the transformation methods (heat-pressure-the rotation of earth), which are all elements that the present mvention has benefitted from, with the major advantage of having the ability to distinguish between distillation under pressures, and distillation in a vacuum.
  • 35—The treatment of oil shale, whether on-site or off-site, is undertaken using various heating methods to achieve a temperature of 400-500° C. Consequently the quality of the oil is close to the required specification, but different in terms of chemical structure. But the similarity in these methods is that the extracted oil cannot be sent to the refineries, thus having to go through a treatment process prior to being sent. When using the present method of extraction and treatment of oil shale, there is no need for such a process, and the oil can be sent directly to the refinery, and the gas can be sent for immediate use, or directly to the condensation unit. The chemical analysis conducted on random samples of oil and gas, all prove this, and show the specifications of each of them, and therefore the present invention is able to determine the indicators for the fields in which they can be used, and their economic and environmental feasibility of the process.
  • 36—The current extraction techniques of separating organic from non-organic components involve the consumption of water in order to facilitate the release of the kerogen, which is a major problem, because the small water particles seep into the particles of the oil, thus requiring a highly method to separate them. As mentioned, this invention does not use water during the separation process, and depends on neither water nor air to eliminate the ashes.
  • 37—The oil shale treatment units and the direct burning of oil shale units treat shale that has at least 1000 kcal/kg, and undertake enrichment processes to oil shale so that it can be treated. As for the American oil shale treatment units, for example, they need to be amended drastically for the treatment of Jordanian oil shale. This technology can be used on all kinds of oil shale with a thermal energy of 750 kcal/kg without having to make any amendments to the treatment unit, because the metallic compounds carrying the organic matter have almost the same structural units, with the latter having the same metallic elements, which can have either a negative or a positive effect on the solid fuel, and the solid fuel residue, and limits the scopes in which solid fuel can be used.
  • 38—Oil shale is impermeable and is an isolator that prevents the exchange of thermal energy. It must be broken in a certain manner and placed in a treatment unit in a specific way. Also the distance between the particles must be equal and there should be smooth particles among these equal-sized particles. These factors help in the transfer of thermal energy. All the particles of oil shale are equal until the oil and gas are extracted at the same time from all the particles. This data reflects on the mechanical extraction of the shale oil, and indicates the presence of a large quantity of organic matter stored in the oil shale.
  • 39—The quantity and type of organic material extracted from oil shale depends on the temperature of extraction, and the time it takes to do so, in addition to the chemical and physical composition of the oil shale. There are no elements whose quantity or quality will change by changing the temperature or the duration of the treatment, because at the degree of fixation, a complete separation between the organic and non-organic components will occur. The purpose of increasing the temperature will change the compound kerosene and the bitumen mixed in with it, to gaseous and liquid hydrocarbon, and thus there will no longer be between any difference in the chemical structure of the kerogen and the bitumen.
  • 40—The present invention does not agree with the German experiment, but base this work on present experience which has proved that the treatment of oil shale can fulfil the requirements for energy and the shortage in cement, as well. In addition to providing the water and the energy necessary for the industries that consume both water and energy for individual profits, and that have no impact on the development of the country. Saving water and energy means that the treatment of the oil shale should involve the same process of manufacturing cement, since solid fuel changes into cement, without the need to have a separate cement-manufacturing entity, and the experience and relevant analysis have proved this.
  • 41—In the present methods of oil shale processing technologies; spatial or out-situ treatment methods; the only product that is taken advantage of is the shale oil. The shale gas is burnt to be used to complete the heating processes which are required in the oil shale process. Taking into consideration that this oil is in need for tough hydrogenation processes to make the extracted shale oil ready to be sent to the refineries. In the invented thermal dismantling method; the resulting products are shale gas, shale oil, water, hot air, ash that is used to produce solid fuel, and solid fuel residual, while the oil does not need a hydrogenation process, so, it is sent directly to refineries.
  • 42—Processing of oil shale in the direct combustion method depends on the consumption of water in huge varying amounts, mainly when it is used for electric power generation. In the present invention's technique, water is produced rather than consumed.

In order to obtain shale gas which matches the specifications of the natural gas, shale oil which is consistent in specifications, structural and chemical composition with the crude oil, so that it can be sent directly to the crude oil refineries without need for specific treatment or hydrogenation process, the present invention of high range temperature thermal dismantling method in processing oil shale, bituminous sand is developed. The method is characterized by;

    • the dismantling process is conducted in a reactor positioned inside a furnace in which solid fuel is burned indirectly to heat oil shale placed inside the reactor,
    • the dismantling process is conducted in between 850° C. and 1000° C.
    • shale gas, shale oil, water, purified hot air are extracted separately during dismantling process,
    • the resulting oil shale ash from the reactor is then sent out to be cooled and then treated to obtain what is called a solid fuel.
    • In the furnace of this invention, liquid or gas fuel is burned until the temperature reaches to 550° C., and then the liquid or gas fuel source is replaced with solid fuel to raise the temperature to 1000° C. at standard atmospheric pressure.

Additionally in this high range temperature thermal dismantling method shale gas and water vapour are separated by using vacuum pump to be directed into condenser, after the condenser the shale oil and the water are liquidised while the gas has been directed to gas tank. Shale oil is also separated from the water by using separation tower and water is directed to the water tank.

The hot air is pulled from the furnace and directed to the washing and cleaning unit, after that the hot air is directed to the heat exchange and precipitator unit.

High Temperature Achievement Mechanism is Explained Below.

The idea behind burning the advanced solid fuel system is derived from the knowledge of the series of the successive thermal interactions that occur on the surface of the stars and its mass s limitation and the stages of its life cycle. Adequate knowledge of these concepts leads to understanding the difference between chemical energy and nuclear energy.

The chemical energy is often stored inside the material and contributes to the process of binding the atoms in the molecule, as well as binding the material's molecules together. Chemical energy often turns into thermal energy through chemical reactions.

The nuclear energy is initiated from the atom of the nucleus as a result of the nuclear particles' rearrangement and assembling. This is accompanied with a transfer of parts of the mass of these particles into energy.

The temperature raising mechanism from nuclear energy is explained below.

The amount of transformed amount of mass into energy is a key factor in the process of temperature control that can be achieved within the reaction medium.

The atom is the essence of the material's structure, and energy is considered as the engine of this essence which indicates a complementary relationship between the material and energy. From here, it can be concluded that the mass of the nucleus is the main criteria for the material's energy content.

As the mass of the nucleus is less than the sum of its components' masses; the shortfall in the nucleus mass is regarded as an indicator to the correlation energy between the components of the nucleus. The correlation energy between the nucleus components can be calculated with the Lahnstein Law bellow


ΔE=ΔMC2

Where ΔE is the change in the amount of the correlation energy, ΔM is the change in the nucleus mass and C is the speed of light.

The temperature raising mechanism from the chemical interaction energy is explained below.

In this field; the advantage of the chemical interactions must be taken to obtain the thermal energy.

The chemical reactions take place between the reactants in large amounts and it needs so-called activation energy to occur. Activation energy can be obtained from various sources such as heat to speed up the movement of the atoms and molecules. Chemical interactions release thermal energy by means of heat. The resulting heat is calculated based on the amounts of the reactants.

Nuclear reactions: in which a nucleus interacts with other nucleus or nucleolus (proton or neutron). The interaction occurs in a very short period of time in order to produce a new nucleus or more. The resulting interaction is associated with releasing small particles and energy.

When the interaction energy is calculated on the basis of grams rather than the interaction of the nucleus; the amount of the released energy would be enormous.

These facts make the interaction approach nuclear reactions that make the thermal reaction medium achieve high temperatures. The resulting high temperatures contribute to the occurrence of new series of successive thermal interactions, as a result; the reaction medium temperatures could achieve the temperatures of up to a level that is similar to the surface temperature of the stars, and this medium is suitable for the continuation of the thermal nuclear reactions.

In conclusion; energy can be obtained either from the nuclear energy stored in the nucleus mass according to Lahnstein Law in terms of correlation energy, or from the chemical interactions energy which is stored in the bonds.

To process oil shale; it is enough to reach the temperature of 1600° C. at the center of the combustion reaction medium and 1000° C. at the reactor's wall.

If the propose from using the combustion system (combustion medium) is to access high temperatures that meet the requirements of the mining industry (starts from temperatures of 2000° C. and above); it is enough to change the reaction medium (reactor liner material) and to increase the amount of the material that is used to be changed into energy (achieving what is happening on the surface of the stars). Accordingly; the more the amount of material transformed into energy is increased; the higher the temperature of the reaction medium is achieved.

In conclusion; the high temperatures are obtained by taking advantage of the nature of chemical reactions at first, as well as the nature of the interactions of thermal nuclear secondly. This underlines the amount of benefit achieved from the potential energy stored in the advanced solid fuel to reach such high temperatures.

Since all types of rocks consist of eight key elements in addition to no more than 2% of different secondary elements; all of these elements are considered as combustible in presence of oxygen or the presence of a sufficient amount of air.

The existence of the above mentioned scientific facts and the implementation of the well-studied calculations; temperatures that contribute in melting and evaporating metals can be obtained, taking into consideration that reaching the desired high temperature relies on the combustion medium that can bear that temperature without reaching the state of collapse. Thus, any high temperature can be accessed provided that the combustion medium that can stand this temperature exists.

Claims

1- A high range temperature thermal dismantling method conducted in between 850° C. and 1000° C. in processing oil shale, bituminous sand in order to obtain shale gas which matches the specifications of the natural gas, shale oil which is consistent in specifications, structural and chemical composition with the crude oil, so that it can be sent directly to the crude oil refineries without need for specific treatment or hydrogenation process, wherein

the dismantling process is conducted in a reactor positioned inside a furnace in which solid fuel which is oil shale ash taken out of the reactor and cooled and then treated is burned indirectly to heat oil shale placed inside the reactor,
shale gas, shale oil, water, purified hot air are extracted separately during dismantling process,
shale gas and water vapour are separated by using vacuum pump to be directed into condenser, after the condenser the shale oil and the water are liquidised while the gas has been directed to gas tank,
shale oil is separated from the water by using separation tower and water is directed to the water tank,
the hot air is pulled from the furnace and directed to the washing and cleaning unit, after that the hot air is directed to the heat exchange and precipitator unit, and
the resulting oil shale ash from the reactor is then sent out to be cooled and then treated to obtain what is called a solid fuel.

2- The high range temperature thermal dismantling method of claim 1, wherein the liquid or gas fuel is burned in the furnace until the temperature reaches to 550° C., and then the liquid or gas fuel source is replaced with solid fuel to raise the temperature to 1000° C. at standard atmospheric pressure.

Patent History
Publication number: 20160251578
Type: Application
Filed: May 13, 2014
Publication Date: Sep 1, 2016
Applicant: INVESTMENT FOR OILY SHALE TECHNOLOGIES CO. LTD. (Amman)
Inventor: Al Ahmad TRAD (Ankara)
Application Number: 15/028,030
Classifications
International Classification: C10B 53/06 (20060101); C10G 1/00 (20060101); C10B 57/16 (20060101); C10L 3/10 (20060101); C10B 47/02 (20060101); C10G 1/02 (20060101); C10L 3/08 (20060101);