SOME COMMON TRAITS OF THERMAL-DESTRUCTION OF OIL SHALES FROM VARIOUS DEPOSITS OF THE WORLD

The physical and chemical properties of low-and high-sulfur oil shales from 36 deposits throughout the world, and of their retorting product s have been investigated and generalized. Barring on the oil qualities , the shales may be divided into three main groups: yielding paraffini c, high-sulfur, and oxygen-compound-rich oils. On the basis of the dis tribution of sulfur between retorting products, the oil shales from va rious deposits of the world tested in the standard Fischer assay may b e divided into four groups. The first group comprises the oil shales w hose retorting yields semicoke containing 100-70 % of the total sulfur (low-sulfur shales). The respective amount of sulfur in semicoke of o ther shales is 70-50 % (II, transitional group), 50-30 % (III), and 30 -20 % (IV), the last two groups comprise high-sulfur shales. Other cha nges in physical and chemical properties of retorting products may be traced back to be in a good correlation with this feature.