Optimizing Reactor Parameters to Achieve Higher Process Yield in Ex-Situ Oil Shale Process
Journal Title: International Journal of engineering Research and Applications - Year 2017, Vol 7, Issue 4
Abstract
Declining worldwide crude oil reserves and increasing energy needs have the attentions focused on developing existing unconventional fossil fuels including oil shale. America’s richest oil shale deposits are found in the Green River Formation of western Colorado, eastern Utah and south-western Wyoming. The current work describes process simulation of an ex-situ oil shale pyrolysis process in a pyrolytic reactor using a novel method involving external and internal heating to increase heat transfer and mixing ratio inside the reactor. Efforts to improve process yield for commercial operation relies on first developing a complete Aspen based process model of a proposed shale refining plant, identifying the key process parameters for the reactor and then optimizing the overall process. Simulation results are compared to earlier experimental data collected from a pilot scale rotary reactor operated by Combustion Resources Inc. (CR). This work identified the critical impact of bed temperature on crude production in such a way that for a bed temperature of less than 400°C, results showed less than 10% conversion in crude production and for bed temperatures between 450 and 500°C, above 90% conversion was achieved. The proposed model consists of four zones including drying, shale reactions, natural gas combustion and gas/oil recovery. Different cases were defined and studied based on various operational conditions. Optimized operational values for the key parameters including reactor temperature, reactor volume and feed rate were given as results to maximum shale oil production.
Authors and Affiliations
Dr. Hassan Golpour, Anand Alembath, Dr. Joseph D. Smith
Keywords
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- EP ID EP390916
- DOI 10.9790/9622-0704018193.
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