Abstract
A series of experimental runs with Colorado and Thailand oil shales were carried out in a continuous pressurized retort we devised. Effects of various operating conditions on oil yields and properties as well as on the performance of the retort have been studied. The higher the pressure was, the lighter was the shale oil produced without sacrificing the yield. However, by increasing the rate of gas, the yield increased slightly though the oil itself had become relatively heavy for Colorado oil shale. For Thailand oil shale, experiments were conducted with addition of 10-30wt% of inert solid to avoid the plugging-up of the retort. Effects of pressure and the rate of gas flow formed a complex relationship, i. e., under the sufficient supply of hydrogen, increasing the pressure increased the oil yield. The maximum capacity of this retort was determined from which the apparent thermal conductivity of oil shale particles was estimated.
