A process for producing carbonaceous matter from tar sand, oil shale and olive cake

Many countries which do not produce oil are rich with other sources of ener gy that are not fully utilized, such as tar sand, oil shale and olive cake. Limited previous work was done on producing carbonaceous matter and separa ting volatile matter from combinations of tar sand, oil shale and olive cak e. In this study, a process is designed and tested to produce carbonaceous matter from combinations of the three materials mentioned above. Results in dicate that the process is successful in producing carbonaceous matter. The minimum temperature to achieve complete carbonization was found to be 500 degrees C for a minimum heating time of 1.5 h. Carbonized materials were te sted for their calorific values, which indicated a successful carbonization process. The proposed process can be scaled up and automated, and is expec ted to be economically feasible. Moreover, the process allows for control o f unwanted exiting polluting gases and volatile matter and therefore is env ironmentally safe. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.