Retorting of oil shale followed by solvent extraction of spent shale: Experiment and kinetic analysis

Samples of El-Lajjun oil shale were thermally decomposed in a laboratory re tort system under a slow heating rate (0.07 K/s) up to a maximum temperatur e of 698-773 K. After decomposition, 0.02 kg of spent shale was extracted b y chloroform in a Soxhlet extraction unit for 2 h to investigate the ultima te amount of shale oil that could be produced. The retorting results indica te an increase in the oil yields from 3.24% to 9.77% of oil shale feed with retorting temperature, while the extraction results show a decrease in oil yields from 8.10% to 3.32% of spent shale. The analysis of the data accord ing to the global first-order model for isothermal and nonisothermal condit ions shows kinetic parameters close to those reported in literature.