Use of Pulsewave Technology as a Kerogen Beneficiation Technique in Oil Shale Processing

75092-Approximately 35% of the worlds known oil shale reserves, amounting to 1.2 trillion barrels of oil, are located in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. In spite of this, there has not been an active full-scale oil shale project in the U.S. since 1991, largely due to the costs involved in operating such a project and the environmental problems associated with retorted shale material. This project will develop technology for pre-retort kerogen enrichment, a process that would facilitate oil shale exploitation. This process will offer significant energy savings in the retorting process and produce a shale oil product that contains less heteroatoms, thereby improving its refining properties. The process also will mitigate some of the environmental problems associated with pollution from retorted shale. Phase I will produce a relatively clean kerogen fraction by a new method of processing raw oil shale ore. The retorting properties of the clean kerogen phase will be determined by performing material balance Fischer assays on samples of this material, and the results will be compared to similar assays of unprocessed raw ore samples. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: A process that liberates kerogen from its oil shale matrix and allows for the desirable organic fraction to be retorted as a separate phase should provide cleaner shale oil and result in cost savings.