Abstract
Hydrocarbon resources like coal, oil sand and oil shale are physically and chemically heterogeneous rocks which contain organic materials. All these are highly nonvolatile, insoluble, noncrystalline, extremely complex mixtures of organic molecules varying considerably in size and structure1). This study was carried out to find out the thermal decomposition characteristics of each sample which will be used for in-situ recovery simulation. It was confirmed that the relations between the reaction rate of gas evolved and temperature was almost similar to Arrhenius equation.
Low temperature pyrolysis of three hydrocarbon resources (coal, oil sand and oil shale) in grain size particle was conducted at atmospheric pressure at five different temperatures: 400°C, 450°C, 500°C, 550°C and 600°C in horizontal carbonization furnace (Gray-King Assay). Effects of the operating conditions and the type of hydrocarbon resources on the production of coke, fuel gas, tar or liquid hydrocarbon and aqueous liquid were examined. The yields of fuel gas and other gases (H2, N2, O2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H4 and C2H6) were determined by the gas chromatography. Under such experimental conditions, the product yield was strongly affected by pyrolysis temperature and the kind of hydrocarbon resources.
