The dielectric behavior of Green River oil shale from the Piceance Creek Basin was studied in the microwave frequency range as a function of organic content, frequency of radiation, and packing factor. Shale containing 42 to 317 cm® of oil/kg of shale (10 to 76 gal/ton) as determined by Fischer assay exhibited increasing values of the imaginary relative permittivity from 0.034 to 0.155 at a frequency of 500 MHz. The measurement of permittivity may, therefore, be an alternate and powerful assaying method for oil shale. A broad spectrum of frequencies may be used to assay shale because orientation polarization was observed to disperse molecular dipole relaxation over two decades of frequency.

The sections in this article are Introduction Potential versus Constraints Practical Realization of Catalytic Distillation Tray Towers Packed Towers Modeling Catalytic Distillation Equilibrium‐Stage Models Rate‐Based Models Selected Processes Future Perspectives

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. Abstract The yield and quality of shale oil produced for in-situ retorting conditions was measured by laboratory experiments and related to shale particle size, retorting temperature, and particle size, retorting temperature, and heating rate. In-situ retorting with recycle shale gas at a temperature of 800 deg. F should result in an oil yield of 80 to 85 weight percent of Fischer assay. The in-situ retorted percent of Fischer assay. The in-situ retorted oil would contain 1.7 to 2.0 weight percent nitrogen and 0.5 to 0.7 weight percent sulfur; these values are typical of shale oil from the conventional gas combustion retort. The in-situ retorted oil will have a slightly higher API gravity and be more volatile than oil produced by the gas combustion retort because of additional thermal cracking during production from the larger particles. The oil yield and nitrogen content of the oil did not depend upon the shale particle size for retorting temperatures up to about 800 deg. F, but at higher retorting temperatures, the oil yield was markedly lower for the larger particles. Therefore, in-situ retorting temperatures should be less than about 800 deg. F. Introduction This laboratory investigation of the oil yield and quality obtained from Green River oil shale simulated the conditions for the indirect heating method of modified in-situ retorting. In this method an underground retort is created by fragmenting an oil-shale bed in-situ and thereafter the bed is heated by the injection of hot shale gases. Methods of creating in-situ retorts by fragmentation of shale beds have been considered and experimental fragmentations are being conducted. Most of the reported investigations on retorting methods to recover the shale oil from such fragmented shale beds have concentrated on the in-situ combustion method. The information obtained in this work specifically applies to the modified in-situ retorting process where a fragmented shale bed is heated by injecting hot shale gases into the top of the fragmented zone. The cooled gases and oil are considered to be recovered at the bottom of the fragmented zone. The conditions anticipated for such a process requires that lower retorting temperatures, longer times, and larger shale particles be used in the simulation than is usual for conventional surface retorting processes. processes.

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A multifunctional reactor is a chemical engineering device that exploits enhanced heat and mass transfer to promote production of a desired chemical, combining more than one unit operation in a single system. The main component of the reactor system under study here is a vertical column containing packing material through which liquid(s) and gas flow cocurrently downward. Under certain conditions, a range of hydrodynamic regimes can be achieved within the column that can either enhance or inhibit a desired chemical reaction. To study such reactors in a controlled laboratory environment, two experimental facilities were constructed at Sandia National Laboratories. One experiment, referred to as the Two-Phase Experiment, operates with two phases (air and water). The second experiment, referred to as the Three-Phase Experiment, operates with three phases (immiscible organic liquid and aqueous liquid, and nitrogen). This report describes the motivation, design, construction, operational hazards, and operation of the both of these experiments. Data and conclusions are included. 4 Acknowledgment