Green Process for Simultaneous Extraction of Oil Shale and Enrichment of Ethanol

Abstract

Pure ethanol and its mixtures with water were used as extraction solvents for two Israeli's oil shales. Using bioethanol-like mixtures to produce organic matter from oil shales made the extraction process environmentally friendlier, while simultaneously enriched the ethanol to a level that it can be used as a fuel. It was found that oil shale characteristics, such as organic and water content and particle size, as well as extraction parameters such as shale loading and mixing speed, were found to highly affect the extraction yield. Under optimum conditions up to 8 wt% of organic matter was extracted by ethanol.

Study on Ultrasonic Extraction of Kerogen From Huadian Oil Shale by Solvents

“…The Fischer assay oil content of Huadian oil shale ranges from approximately 5 to 20 wt% [8,9]. There are various possibilities worldwide for oil shale utilization, including currently practiced retorting to produce shale oil [10], direct combustion for electricity generation [11], and solvent extraction for potential shale oil production [12][13][14][15]. However, the methods based on the thermal behavior of oil shale (such as retorting, combustion, gasification) require high energy consumption and provide relatively low carbon conversion, in addition to resultant environmental pollution.…”