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98-565: Red Leaf Resources, Inc , doing business as Green Leaf Carbon Technologies, is an oil-shale technology company based in Salt Lake City , Utah , United States. It is the developer of the shale oil extraction technology HCCO (Homogeneous Charged Continuous Oxidation) Process. The company holds mineral leases in Utah for oil shale development that can support 75,000 bbl/day of oil production. Its Uintah Partners LLC subsidiary also holds surface rights in

196-806: A candle 's flame takes the shape of a sphere. ). Microgravity combustion research contributes to the understanding of a wide variety of aspects that are relevant to both the environment of a spacecraft (e.g., fire dynamics relevant to crew safety on the International Space Station ) and terrestrial (Earth-based) conditions (e.g., droplet combustion dynamics to assist developing new fuel blends for improved combustion, materials fabrication processes , thermal management of electronic systems , multiphase flow boiling dynamics, and many others). Combustion processes that happen in very small volumes are considered micro-combustion . The high surface-to-volume ratio increases specific heat loss. Quenching distance plays

294-412: A detonation . The type of burning that actually occurs depends on the degree to which the fuel and oxidizer are mixed prior to heating: for example, a diffusion flame is formed if the fuel and oxidizer are separated initially, whereas a premixed flame is formed otherwise. Similarly, the type of burning also depends on the pressure: a detonation, for example, is an autoignitive reaction front coupled to

392-399: A flame is produced. A simple example can be seen in the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen into water vapor , a reaction which is commonly used to fuel rocket engines . This reaction releases 242   kJ/mol of heat and reduces the enthalpy accordingly (at constant temperature and pressure): Uncatalyzed combustion in air requires relatively high temperatures. Complete combustion

490-399: A triplet spin state . Bonding can be described with three bonding electron pairs and two antibonding electrons, with spins aligned, such that the molecule has nonzero total angular momentum. Most fuels, on the other hand, are in a singlet state, with paired spins and zero total angular momentum. Interaction between the two is quantum mechanically a " forbidden transition ", i.e. possible with

588-444: A cigarette, a short-circuited wire) and the persistent combustion of biomass behind the flaming fronts of wildfires . Spontaneous combustion is a type of combustion that occurs by self-heating (increase in temperature due to exothermic internal reactions), followed by thermal runaway (self-heating which rapidly accelerates to high temperatures) and finally, ignition. For example, phosphorus self-ignites at room temperature without

686-472: A conversion ratio of 650 liters (170 U.S. gal; 140 imp gal) of oil per one ton of coal, as against 150 liters (40 U.S. gal; 33 imp gal) of shale oil per one ton of oil shale. A critical measure of the viability of oil shale as an energy source lies in the ratio of the energy produced by the shale to the energy used in its mining and processing, a ratio known as " energy return on investment " (EROI). A 1984 study estimated

784-407: A fuel gas that is produced along with oil from the system. Heat is recovered by exposing the leading edge of the heat front to fresh ore. When all the oil is recovered from one vessel and the spent ore has been cooled, the vessel is offloaded and reloaded with fresh kerogen ore. Typically, three vessels are grouped together in a pod with two vessels involved in the heat movement and oil production while

882-545: A given offgas temperature, the NOx level is lowest when excess oxygen is kept lowest. Adherence to these two principles is furthered by making material and heat balances on the combustion process. The material balance directly relates the air/fuel ratio to the percentage of O 2 in the combustion gas. The heat balance relates the heat available for the charge to the overall net heat produced by fuel combustion. Additional material and heat balances can be made to quantify

980-463: A hydroperoxide radical (HOO). This reacts further to give hydroperoxides, which break up to give hydroxyl radicals . There are a great variety of these processes that produce fuel radicals and oxidizing radicals. Oxidizing species include singlet oxygen, hydroxyl, monatomic oxygen, and hydroperoxyl . Such intermediates are short-lived and cannot be isolated. However, non-radical intermediates are stable and are produced in incomplete combustion. An example

1078-695: A marine type of Dictyonema shale served for uranium production in Sillamäe , Estonia, and between 1950 and 1989 Sweden used alum shale for the same purposes. Oil shale gas has served as a substitute for natural gas , but as of 2009 , producing oil shale gas as a natural-gas substitute remained economically infeasible. The shale oil derived from oil shale does not directly substitute for crude oil in all applications. It may contain higher concentrations of olefins , oxygen, and nitrogen than conventional crude oil. Some shale oils may have higher sulfur or arsenic content. By comparison with West Texas Intermediate ,

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1176-587: A number of environmental concerns, such as land use , waste disposal , water use , waste-water management , greenhouse-gas emissions and air pollution . Oil shale, an organic-rich sedimentary rock, belongs to the group of sapropel fuels . It does not have a definite geological definition nor a specific chemical formula, and its seams do not always have discrete boundaries. Oil shales vary considerably in their mineral content, chemical composition, age, type of kerogen, and depositional history, and not all oil shales would necessarily be classified as shales in

1274-472: A potential abundant source of oil. However, the various attempts to develop oil shale deposits have had limited success. Only Estonia and China have well-established oil shale industries, and Brazil, Germany, and Russia utilize oil shale to some extent. Oil shale can be burned directly in furnaces as a low-grade fuel for power generation and district heating or used as a raw material in chemical and construction-materials processing. Heating oil shale to

1372-414: A strong shock wave giving it its characteristic high-pressure peak and high detonation velocity . The act of combustion consists of three relatively distinct but overlapping phases: Efficient process heating requires recovery of the largest possible part of a fuel's heat of combustion into the material being processed. There are many avenues of loss in the operation of a heating process. Typically,

1470-464: A sufficiently high temperature causes the chemical process of pyrolysis to yield a vapor . Upon cooling the vapor, the liquid unconventional oil , called shale oil , is separated from combustible oil-shale gas . Shale oil is a substitute for conventional crude oil; however, extracting shale oil is costlier than the production of conventional crude oil both financially and in terms of its environmental impact . Oil-shale mining and processing raise

1568-426: A very low probability. To initiate combustion, energy is required to force dioxygen into a spin-paired state, or singlet oxygen . This intermediate is extremely reactive. The energy is supplied as heat , and the reaction then produces additional heat, which allows it to continue. Combustion of hydrocarbons is thought to be initiated by hydrogen atom abstraction (not proton abstraction) from the fuel to oxygen, to give

1666-445: A vital role in stabilizing the flame in such combustion chambers . Generally, the chemical equation for stoichiometric combustion of a hydrocarbon in oxygen is: For example, the stoichiometric combustion of methane in oxygen is: If the stoichiometric combustion takes place using air as the oxygen source, the nitrogen present in the air ( Atmosphere of Earth ) can be added to the equation (although it does not react) to show

1764-460: Is acetaldehyde produced in the combustion of ethanol . An intermediate in the combustion of carbon and hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide , is of special importance because it is a poisonous gas , but also economically useful for the production of syngas . Solid and heavy liquid fuels also undergo a great number of pyrolysis reactions that give more easily oxidized, gaseous fuels. These reactions are endothermic and require constant energy input from

1862-500: Is extracted in Estonia , mainly because Estonia uses several oil-shale-fired power plants , which has an installed capacity of 2,967  megawatts (MW). By comparison, China's oil shale power plants have an installed capacity of 12 MW, and Germany's have 9.9 MW. A 470 MW oil shale power plant in Jordan is under construction as of 2020. Israel, Romania and Russia have in

1960-454: Is stoichiometric concerning the fuel, where there is no remaining fuel, and ideally, no residual oxidant. Thermodynamically, the chemical equilibrium of combustion in air is overwhelmingly on the side of the products. However, complete combustion is almost impossible to achieve, since the chemical equilibrium is not necessarily reached, or may contain unburnt products such as carbon monoxide , hydrogen and even carbon ( soot or ash). Thus,

2058-400: Is 'low' (i.e., 'micro' in the sense of 'small' and not necessarily a millionth of Earth's normal gravity) such that the influence of buoyancy on physical processes may be considered small relative to other flow processes that would be present at normal gravity. In such an environment, the thermal and flow transport dynamics can behave quite differently than in normal gravity conditions (e.g.,

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2156-419: Is 1 / (1 + 2 + 7.54) = 9.49% vol. The stoichiometric combustion reaction for C α H β O γ in air: The stoichiometric combustion reaction for C α H β O γ S δ : The stoichiometric combustion reaction for C α H β O γ N δ S ε : The stoichiometric combustion reaction for C α H β O γ F δ : Various other substances begin to appear in significant amounts in combustion products when

2254-437: Is called also frequently shale oil. General composition of oil shales constitutes inorganic matrix, bitumens, and kerogen. While the bitumen portion of oil shales is soluble in carbon disulfide , the kerogen portion is insoluble in carbon disulfide and may contain iron , vanadium , nickel , molybdenum , and uranium . Oil shale contains a lower percentage of organic matter than coal . In commercial grades of oil shale

2352-463: Is converted to carbon monoxide , and some of the hydrogens remain unreacted. A complete set of equations for the combustion of a hydrocarbon in the air, therefore, requires an additional calculation for the distribution of oxygen between the carbon and hydrogen in the fuel. The amount of air required for complete combustion is known as the "theoretical air" or "stoichiometric air". The amount of air above this value actually needed for optimal combustion

2450-581: Is greatly preferred especially as carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas. When breathed, carbon monoxide takes the place of oxygen and combines with some of the hemoglobin in the blood, rendering it unable to transport oxygen. These oxides combine with water and oxygen in the atmosphere, creating nitric acid and sulfuric acids , which return to Earth's surface as acid deposition, or "acid rain." Acid deposition harms aquatic organisms and kills trees. Due to its formation of certain nutrients that are less available to plants such as calcium and phosphorus, it reduces

2548-532: Is harvested for diverse uses such as cooking , production of electricity or industrial or domestic heating. Combustion is also currently the only reaction used to power rockets . Combustion is also used to destroy ( incinerate ) waste, both nonhazardous and hazardous. Oxidants for combustion have high oxidation potential and include atmospheric or pure oxygen , chlorine , fluorine , chlorine trifluoride , nitrous oxide and nitric acid . For instance, hydrogen burns in chlorine to form hydrogen chloride with

2646-428: Is known as the "excess air", and can vary from 5% for a natural gas boiler, to 40% for anthracite coal, to 300% for a gas turbine . Incomplete combustion will occur when there is not enough oxygen to allow the fuel to react completely to produce carbon dioxide and water. It also happens when the combustion is quenched by a heat sink, such as a solid surface or flame trap. As is the case with complete combustion, water

2744-438: Is positively correlated with the risk of heart disease. People who survive severe carbon monoxide poisoning may suffer long-term health problems. Carbon monoxide from the air is absorbed in the lungs which then binds with hemoglobin in human's red blood cells. This reduces the capacity of red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body. Smoldering is the slow, low-temperature, flameless form of combustion, sustained by

2842-548: Is produced by incomplete combustion; however, carbon and carbon monoxide are produced instead of carbon dioxide. For most fuels, such as diesel oil, coal, or wood, pyrolysis occurs before combustion. In incomplete combustion, products of pyrolysis remain unburnt and contaminate the smoke with noxious particulate matter and gases. Partially oxidized compounds are also a concern; partial oxidation of ethanol can produce harmful acetaldehyde , and carbon can produce toxic carbon monoxide. The designs of combustion devices can improve

2940-563: Is sometimes produced from drilled wells. Examples of oil- bearing shales are the Bakken Formation , Pierre Shale , Niobrara Formation , and Eagle Ford Formation . Accordingly, shale oil produced from oil shale should not be confused with tight oil, which is also frequently called shale oil. A 2016 estimate of global deposits set the total world resources of oil shale equivalent of 6.05 trillion barrels (962 billion cubic metres) of oil in place . Oil shale has gained attention as

3038-1137: Is the culmination of those efforts and Green Leaf Carbon Technologies is now pursuing commercial demonstration of the technology. Michael Binnion is the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Jason D’Silva is a director and the Chair of the Audit Committee. Patrick Quinlan is a director and the Chair of the Compensation Committee. Oil-shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds ) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitutes inorganic substance and bitumens . Based on their deposition environment, oil shales are classified as marine, lacustrine and terrestrial oil shales. Oil shales differ from oil- bearing shales, shale deposits that contain petroleum ( tight oil ) that

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3136-417: Is the source of oxygen ( O 2 ). In the air, each mole of oxygen is mixed with approximately 3.71  mol of nitrogen. Nitrogen does not take part in combustion, but at high temperatures, some nitrogen will be converted to NO x (mostly NO , with much smaller amounts of NO 2 ). On the other hand, when there is insufficient oxygen to combust the fuel completely, some fuel carbon

3234-510: Is the vapor that burns, not the liquid. Therefore, a liquid will normally catch fire only above a certain temperature: its flash point . The flash point of liquid fuel is the lowest temperature at which it can form an ignitable mix with air. It is the minimum temperature at which there is enough evaporated fuel in the air to start combustion. Combustion of gaseous fuels may occur through one of four distinctive types of burning: diffusion flame , premixed flame , autoignitive reaction front , or as

3332-648: Is theoretically needed to ensure that all the fuel burns. For methane ( CH 4 ) combustion, for example, slightly more than two molecules of oxygen are required. The second principle of combustion management, however, is to not use too much oxygen. The correct amount of oxygen requires three types of measurement: first, active control of air and fuel flow; second, offgas oxygen measurement; and third, measurement of offgas combustibles. For each heating process, there exists an optimum condition of minimal offgas heat loss with acceptable levels of combustibles concentration. Minimizing excess oxygen pays an additional benefit: for

3430-585: Is unknown. Humans have used oil shale as a fuel since prehistoric times, since it generally burns without any processing. Around 3000 BC, "rock oil" was used in Mesopotamia for road construction and making architectural adhesives. Britons of the Iron Age used tractable oil shales to fashion cists for burial, or just polish it to create ornaments. In the 10th century, the Arab physician Masawaih al-Mardini (Mesue

3528-801: Is utilized as a fuel for thermal power-plants, burning it (like coal) to drive steam turbines ; some of these plants employ the resulting heat for district heating of homes and businesses. In addition to its use as a fuel, oil shale may also serve in the production of specialty carbon fibers , adsorbent carbons , carbon black , phenols , resins, glues, tanning agents, mastic, road bitumen, cement, bricks, construction and decorative blocks, soil-additives, fertilizers, rock-wool insulation, glass, and pharmaceutical products. However, oil shale use for production of these items remains small or only in experimental development. Some oil shales yield sulfur , ammonia , alumina , soda ash , uranium, and nahcolite as shale-oil extraction byproducts. Between 1946 and 1952,

3626-690: Is utilized primarily in Brazil, China, Estonia and to some extent in Germany, and Russia. Several additional countries started assessing their reserves or had built experimental production plants, while others had phased out their oil shale industry. Oil shale serves for oil production in Estonia, Brazil, and China; for power generation in Estonia, China, and Germany; for cement production in Estonia, Germany, and China; and for use in chemical industries in China, Estonia, and Russia. As of 2009 , 80% of oil shale used globally

3724-569: The Fischer Assay . A 2016 estimate set the total world resources of oil shale equivalent to yield of 6.05 trillion barrels (962 billion cubic metres) of shale oil, with the largest resource deposits in the United States accounting more than 80% of the world total resource. For comparison, at the same time the world's proven oil reserves are estimated to be 1.6976 trillion barrels (269.90 billion cubic metres). The largest deposits in

3822-475: The RAND Corporation , the cost of producing a barrel of oil at a surface retorting complex in the United States (comprising a mine, retorting plant, upgrading plant , supporting utilities, and spent shale reclamation), would range between US$ 70–95 ($ 440–600/m , adjusted to 2005 values). This estimate considers varying levels of kerogen quality and extraction efficiency. In order to run a profitable operation,

3920-538: The biodegradation of oil, heat and pressure have not (yet) transformed the kerogen in oil shale into petroleum, which means its maturation does not exceed early mesocatagenetic . Oil shales differ also from oil-bearing shales, shale deposits that contain tight oil that is sometimes produced from drilled wells. Examples of oil-bearing shales are the Bakken Formation , Pierre Shale , Niobrara Formation , and Eagle Ford Formation . Accordingly, shale oil produced from oil shale should not be confused with tight oil, which

4018-457: The efficiency of a burner during the combustion process. Also, the efficiency of an internal combustion engine can be measured in this way, and some U.S. states and local municipalities use combustion analysis to define and rate the efficiency of vehicles on the road today. Carbon monoxide is one of the products from incomplete combustion . The formation of carbon monoxide produces less heat than formation of carbon dioxide so complete combustion

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4116-410: The flame temperature is above about 1600  K . When excess air is used, nitrogen may oxidize to NO and, to a much lesser extent, to NO 2 . CO forms by disproportionation of CO 2 , and H 2 and OH form by disproportionation of H 2 O . For example, when 1  mol of propane is burned with 28.6  mol of air (120% of the stoichiometric amount),

4214-446: The heat-treatment of metals and for gas carburizing . The general reaction equation for incomplete combustion of one mole of a hydrocarbon in oxygen is: When z falls below roughly 50% of the stoichiometric value, CH 4 can become an important combustion product; when z falls below roughly 35% of the stoichiometric value, elemental carbon may become stable. The products of incomplete combustion can be calculated with

4312-402: The hydrogen , carbon , and oxygen content of oil shales' original organic matter. The most commonly used classification of oil shales, developed between 1987 and 1991 by Adrian C. Hutton, adapts petrographic terms from coal terminology. This classification designates oil shales as terrestrial, lacustrine (lake-bottom-deposited), or marine (ocean bottom-deposited), based on the environment of

4410-441: The room-and-pillar method . The extraction of the useful components of oil shale usually takes place above ground ( ex-situ processing), although several newer technologies perform this underground (on-site or in-situ processing). In either case, the chemical process of pyrolysis converts the kerogen in the oil shale to shale oil ( synthetic crude oil) and oil shale gas. Most conversion technologies involve heating shale in

4508-567: The 1980s . On 2 May 1982, known in some circles as "Black Sunday", Exxon canceled its US$ 5 billion Colony Shale Oil Project near Parachute, Colorado , because of low oil prices and increased expenses, laying off more than 2,000 workers and leaving a trail of home foreclosures and small business bankruptcies. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 , which among other things abolished

4606-420: The 1990s and 2000s. However, appropriate refining processes equivalent to hydrocracking can transform shale oil into a lighter-range hydrocarbon ( gasoline ). The various attempts to develop oil shale deposits have succeeded only when the cost of shale-oil production in a given region comes in below the price of crude oil or its other substitutes ( break-even price ). According to a 2005 survey, conducted by

4704-513: The 19th century focused on the production of kerosene , lamp oil, and paraffin ; these products helped supply the growing demand for lighting that arose during the Industrial Revolution , supplied from Scottish oil shales. Fuel oil, lubricating oil and grease, and ammonium sulfate were also produced. Scottish production peaked in around 1913, operating 120 oil shale works, producing 3,332,000 tonnes of oil shale, generating around 2% of

4802-557: The EROI of the various known oil-shale deposits as varying between 0.7–13.3, although known oil-shale extraction development projects assert an EROI between 3 and 10. According to the World Energy Outlook 2010, the EROI of ex-situ processing is typically 4 to 5 while of in-situ processing it may be even as low as 2. However, according to the IEA most of used energy can be provided by burning

4900-491: The Estonian and Chinese oil-shale industries continued to grow after World War II , most other countries abandoned their projects because of high processing costs and the availability of cheaper petroleum. Following the 1973 oil crisis , world production of oil shale reached a peak of 46 million tonnes in 1980 before falling to about 16 million tonnes in 2000, because of competition from cheap conventional petroleum in

4998-620: The New Policies Scenario introduced in its World Energy Outlook 2010 , a price of $ 50 per tonne of emitted CO 2 adds additional $ 7.50 cost per barrel of shale oil. As of November 2021, the price of tonne of CO 2 exceeded $ 60. A 1972 publication in the journal Pétrole Informations ( ISSN   0755-561X ) compared shale-based oil production unfavorably with coal liquefaction . The article portrayed coal liquefaction as less expensive, generating more oil, and creating fewer environmental impacts than extraction from oil shale. It cited

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5096-518: The Uinta Basin with a permit for a 40,000 barrel per day refinery. The company is affiliated with Questerre Energy Corporation . The Green Leaf Carbon Technologies process for converting organic-rich material (primarily kerogen) to synthetic oil and gas is called the HCCO Process. The process retorts mined kerogen ore in a closed steel vessel. Heat is moved continuously through the stationary bed with

5194-462: The United States and European Union enforce limits to vehicle nitrogen oxide emissions, which necessitate the use of special catalytic converters or treatment of the exhaust with urea (see Diesel exhaust fluid ). The incomplete (partial) combustion of a hydrocarbon with oxygen produces a gas mixture containing mainly CO 2 , CO , H 2 O , and H 2 . Such gas mixtures are commonly prepared for use as protective atmospheres for

5292-482: The United States' Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program . The global oil-shale industry began to revive at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2003, an oil-shale development program restarted in the United States. Authorities introduced a commercial leasing program permitting the extraction of oil shale and oil sands on federal lands in 2005, in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 . As of 2008 , oil shale

5390-718: The Younger) described a method of extraction of oil from "some kind of bituminous shale". The first patent for extracting oil from oil shale was British Crown Patent 330 granted in 1694 to Martin Eele, Thomas Hancock and William Portlock, who had "found a way to extract and make great quantities of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a sort of stone". Modern industrial mining of oil shale began in 1837 in Autun , France, followed by exploitation in Scotland, Germany, and several other countries. Operations during

5488-432: The absence of oxygen to a temperature at which kerogen decomposes (pyrolyses) into gas, condensable oil, and a solid residue. This usually takes place between 450  °C (842  °F ) and 500  °C (932  °F ). The process of decomposition begins at relatively low temperatures (300 °C or 572 °F) but proceeds more rapidly and more completely at higher temperatures. In-situ processing involves heating

5586-424: The aid of a material balance , together with the assumption that the combustion products reach equilibrium . For example, in the combustion of one mole of propane ( C 3 H 8 ) with four moles of O 2 , seven moles of combustion gas are formed, and z is 80% of the stoichiometric value. The three elemental balance equations are: These three equations are insufficient in themselves to calculate

5684-924: The amount of recoverable kerogen. Although resources of oil shale occur in many countries, only 33 countries possess known deposits of potential economic value. Well-explored deposits, potentially classifiable as reserves, include the Green River deposits in the western United States , the Tertiary deposits in Queensland , Australia, deposits in Sweden and Estonia, the El-Lajjun deposit in Jordan, and deposits in France, Germany, Brazil, China, southern Mongolia and Russia. These deposits have given rise to expectations of yielding at least 40 liters of shale oil per tonne of oil shale, using

5782-418: The application of heat. Organic materials undergoing bacterial composting can generate enough heat to reach the point of combustion. Combustion resulting in a turbulent flame is the most used for industrial applications (e.g. gas turbines , gasoline engines , etc.) because the turbulence helps the mixing process between the fuel and oxidizer . The term 'micro' gravity refers to a gravitational state that

5880-512: The benchmark standard for crude oil in the futures-contract market, the Green River shale oil sulfur content ranges from near 0% to 4.9% (in average 0.76%), where West Texas Intermediate's sulfur content has a maximum of 0.42%. The sulfur content in shale oil from Jordan's oil shales may be as high as 9.5%. The arsenic content, for example, becomes an issue for Green River formation oil shale. The higher concentrations of these materials means that

5978-408: The combustion gas composition. However, at the equilibrium position, the water-gas shift reaction gives another equation: For example, at 1200  K the value of K eq is 0.728. Solving, the combustion gas consists of 42.4% H 2 O , 29.0% CO 2 , 14.7% H 2 , and 13.9% CO . Carbon becomes a stable phase at 1200  K and 1  atm pressure when z is less than 30% of

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6076-457: The combustion products contain 3.3% O 2 . At 1400  K , the equilibrium combustion products contain 0.03% NO and 0.002% OH . At 1800  K , the combustion products contain 0.17% NO , 0.05% OH , 0.01% CO , and 0.004% H 2 . Diesel engines are run with an excess of oxygen to combust small particles that tend to form with only a stoichiometric amount of oxygen, necessarily producing nitrogen oxide emissions. Both

6174-544: The company formed a joint venture with Total S.A. to launch commercial scale production of 9,800 barrels per day (1,560 m/d), utilizing the company’s first-generation EcoShale In-Capsule process on its oil shale leases. In December 2013, a ground water permit was issued for the oil shale mine and shale oil plant. With the collapse of oil prices in 2014, the company undertook a process to redesign its shale oil extraction technology to lower its capital and operating costs and improve its environmental footprint. The HCCO Process

6272-400: The dominant loss is sensible heat leaving with the offgas (i.e., the flue gas ). The temperature and quantity of offgas indicates its heat content ( enthalpy ), so keeping its quantity low minimizes heat loss. In a perfect furnace, the combustion air flow would be matched to the fuel flow to give each fuel molecule the exact amount of oxygen needed to cause complete combustion. However, in

6370-439: The future, but at the same time they may cause other problems, including groundwater pollution . Among the water contaminants commonly associated with oil shale processing are oxygen and nitrogen heterocyclic hydrocarbons. Commonly detected examples include quinoline derivatives, pyridine , and various alkyl homologues of pyridine, such as picoline and lutidine . Water concerns are sensitive issues in arid regions, such as

6468-520: The global production of petroleum. The Scottish oil-shale industry expanded immediately before World War I partly because of limited access to conventional petroleum resources and the mass production of automobiles and trucks, which accompanied an increase in gasoline consumption; but mostly because the British Admiralty required a reliable fuel source for their fleet as war in Europe loomed. Although

6566-486: The heat evolved when oxygen directly attacks the surface of a condensed-phase fuel. It is a typically incomplete combustion reaction. Solid materials that can sustain a smoldering reaction include coal, cellulose , wood , cotton , tobacco , peat , duff , humus , synthetic foams, charring polymers (including polyurethane foam ) and dust . Common examples of smoldering phenomena are the initiation of residential fires on upholstered furniture by weak heat sources (e.g.,

6664-762: The initial biomass deposit. Known oil shales are predominantly of aquatic (marine, lacustrine) origin. Hutton's classification scheme has proven useful in estimating the yield and composition of the extracted oil. As source rocks for most conventional oil reservoirs , oil shale deposits are found in all world oil provinces, although most of them are too deep to be exploited economically. As with all oil and gas resources, analysts distinguish between oil shale resources and oil shale reserves. "Resources" refer to all oil shale deposits, while "reserves" represent those deposits from which producers can extract oil shale economically using existing technology. Since extraction technologies develop continuously, planners can only estimate

6762-402: The liberation of heat and light characteristic of combustion. Although usually not catalyzed, combustion can be catalyzed by platinum or vanadium , as in the contact process . In complete combustion, the reactant burns in oxygen and produces a limited number of products. When a hydrocarbon burns in oxygen, the reaction will primarily yield carbon dioxide and water. When elements are burned,

6860-420: The maximum degree of oxidation, and it can be temperature-dependent. For example, sulfur trioxide is not produced quantitatively by the combustion of sulfur. NO x species appear in significant amounts above about 2,800 °F (1,540 °C), and more is produced at higher temperatures. The amount of NO x is also a function of oxygen excess. In most industrial applications and in fires , air

6958-504: The need for any external fuel sources. The process promises production of ‘blue oil’, that is, oil that has been produced with zero CO 2 emissions. Green Leaf Carbon Technologies controls oil shale leases covering about 16,000 acres (65 km) on State of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands in eastern Utah. The acreage represents about 1.1 billion barrels (170 million cubic metres) of shale oil . Its 2009 pilot project produced more than 300 barrels (48 m) of oil. In 2012,

7056-425: The oil must undergo considerable upgrading ( hydrotreating ) before serving as oil-refinery feedstock. Above-ground retorting processes tended to yield a lower API gravity shale oil than the in situ processes. Shale oil serves best for producing middle- distillates such as kerosene , jet fuel , and diesel fuel . Worldwide demand for these middle distillates, particularly for diesel fuels, increased rapidly in

7154-451: The oil shale industry. In one result, Queensland Energy Resources put the proposed Stuart Oil Shale Project in Australia on hold in 2004. Some comets contain massive amounts of an organic material almost identical to high grade oil shale, the equivalent of cubic kilometers of such mixed with other material; for instance, corresponding hydrocarbons were detected in a probe fly-by through

7252-428: The oil shale underground. Such technologies can potentially extract more oil from a given area of land than ex-situ processes, since they can access the material at greater depths than surface mines can. Several companies have patented methods for in-situ retorting . However, most of these methods remain in the experimental phase. Two in-situ processes could be used: true in-situ processing does not involve mining

7350-502: The oil shale, while modified in-situ processing involves removing part of the oil shale and bringing it to the surface for modified in-situ retorting in order to create permeability for gas flow in a rubble chimney. Explosives rubblize the oil-shale deposit. Hundreds of patents for oil shale retorting technologies exist; however, only a few dozen have undergone testing. By 2006, only four technologies remained in commercial use: Kiviter , Galoter , Fushun , and Petrosix . Oil shale

7448-440: The past run power plants fired by oil shale but have shut them down or switched to other fuel sources such as natural gas . Other countries, such as Egypt, have had plans to construct power plants fired by oil shale, while Canada and Turkey had plans to burn oil shale along with coal for power generation. Oil shale serves as the main fuel for power generation only in Estonia, where 90.3% of country's electrical generation in 2016

7546-431: The price of crude oil would need to remain above these levels. The analysis also discussed the expectation that processing costs would drop after the establishment of the complex. The hypothetical unit would see a cost reduction of 35–70% after producing its first 500 million barrels (79 million cubic metres). Assuming an increase in output of 25 thousand barrels per day (4.0 × 10 ^  m /d) during each year after

7644-576: The produced smoke is usually toxic and contains unburned or partially oxidized products. Any combustion at high temperatures in atmospheric air , which is 78 percent nitrogen , will also create small amounts of several nitrogen oxides , commonly referred to as NOx , since the combustion of nitrogen is thermodynamically favored at high, but not low temperatures. Since burning is rarely clean, fuel gas cleaning or catalytic converters may be required by law. Fires occur naturally, ignited by lightning strikes or by volcanic products. Combustion ( fire )

7742-653: The production of particulates during processing, transport, and support activities. Oil-shale extraction can damage the biological and recreational value of land and the ecosystem in the mining area. Combustion and thermal processing generate waste material. In addition, the atmospheric emissions from oil shale processing and combustion include carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas . Environmentalists oppose production and usage of oil shale, as it creates even more greenhouse gases than conventional fossil fuels. Experimental in situ conversion processes and carbon capture and storage technologies may reduce some of these concerns in

7840-463: The productivity of the ecosystem and farms. An additional problem associated with nitrogen oxides is that they, along with hydrocarbon pollutants, contribute to the formation of ground level ozone , a major component of smog. Breathing carbon monoxide causes headache, dizziness, vomiting, and nausea. If carbon monoxide levels are high enough, humans become unconscious or die. Exposure to moderate and high levels of carbon monoxide over long periods

7938-425: The products are primarily the most common oxides. Carbon will yield carbon dioxide , sulfur will yield sulfur dioxide , and iron will yield iron(III) oxide . Nitrogen is not considered to be a combustible substance when oxygen is the oxidant . Still, small amounts of various nitrogen oxides (commonly designated NO x species) form when the air is the oxidative. Combustion is not necessarily favorable to

8036-644: The quality of combustion, such as burners and internal combustion engines . Further improvements are achievable by catalytic after-burning devices (such as catalytic converters ) or by the simple partial return of the exhaust gases into the combustion process. Such devices are required by environmental legislation for cars in most countries. They may be necessary to enable large combustion devices, such as thermal power stations , to reach legal emission standards . The degree of combustion can be measured and analyzed with test equipment. HVAC contractors, firefighters and engineers use combustion analyzers to test

8134-634: The ratio of organic matter to mineral matter lies approximately between 0.75:5 and 1.5:5. At the same time, the organic matter in oil shale has an atomic ratio of hydrogen to carbon (H/C) approximately 1.2 to 1.8 times lower than for crude oil and about 1.5 to 3 times higher than for coals. The organic components of oil shale derive from a variety of organisms, such as the remains of algae , spores , pollen , plant cuticles and corky fragments of herbaceous and woody plants, and cellular debris from other aquatic and land plants. Some deposits contain significant fossils ; Germany's Messel Pit has

8232-422: The real world, combustion does not proceed in a perfect manner. Unburned fuel (usually CO and H 2 ) discharged from the system represents a heating value loss (as well as a safety hazard). Since combustibles are undesirable in the offgas, while the presence of unreacted oxygen there presents minimal safety and environmental concerns, the first principle of combustion management is to provide more oxygen than

8330-409: The shale is burned directly to generate electricity or undertakes further processing. The most common methods of mining involve open-pit mining and strip mining . These procedures remove most of the overlying material to expose the deposits of oil shale and become practical when the deposits occur near the surface. Underground mining of oil shale , which removes less of the overlying material, employs

8428-553: The spent shale or oil-shale gas. To increase efficiency when retorting oil shale, researchers have proposed and tested several co-pyrolysis processes. Mining oil shale involves numerous environmental impacts, more pronounced in surface mining than in underground mining. These include acid drainage induced by the sudden rapid exposure and subsequent oxidation of formerly buried materials; the introduction of metals including mercury into surface-water and groundwater; increased erosion , sulfur-gas emissions; and air pollution caused by

8526-699: The start of commercial production, RAND predicted the costs would decline to $ 35–48 per barrel ($ 220–300/m ) within 12 years. After achieving the milestone of 1 billion barrels (160 million cubic metres), its costs would decline further to $ 30–40 per barrel ($ 190–250/m ). In 2010, the International Energy Agency estimated, based on the various pilot projects, that investment and operating costs would be similar to those of Canadian oil sands , that means would be economic at prices above $ 60 per barrel at current costs. This figure does not account carbon pricing , which will add additional cost. According to

8624-402: The status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The mineral matter in oil shale includes various fine-grained silicates and carbonates . Inorganic matrix can contain quartz , feldspar , clay (mainly illite and chlorite ), carbonate ( calcite and dolomite ), pyrite and some other minerals. Another classification, known as the van Krevelen diagram, assigns kerogen types, depending on

8722-499: The stoichiometric composition of the fuel in air and the composition of the resultant flue gas. Treating all non-oxygen components in air as nitrogen gives a 'nitrogen' to oxygen ratio of 3.77, i.e. (100% − O 2 %) / O 2 % where O 2 % is 20.95% vol: where z = x + y 4 {\displaystyle z=x+{y \over 4}} . For example, the stoichiometric combustion of methane in air is: The stoichiometric composition of methane in air

8820-414: The stoichiometric value, at which point the combustion products contain more than 98% H 2 and CO and about 0.5% CH 4 . Substances or materials which undergo combustion are called fuels . The most common examples are natural gas, propane, kerosene , diesel , petrol, charcoal, coal, wood, etc. Combustion of a liquid fuel in an oxidizing atmosphere actually happens in the gas phase. It

8918-767: The strict sense. According to the petrologist Adrian C. Hutton of the University of Wollongong , oil shales are not "geological nor geochemically distinctive rock but rather 'economic' term". Their common defining feature is low solubility in low-boiling organic solvents and generation of liquid organic products on thermal decomposition . Geologists can classify oil shales on the basis of their composition as carbonate -rich shales, siliceous shales, or cannel shales. Oil shale differs from bitumen-impregnated rocks (other so-called unconventional resources such as oil sands and petroleum reservoir rocks), humic coals and carbonaceous shale. While oil sands do originate from

9016-418: The tail of Halley's Comet in 1986. Combustion Combustion is often a complicated sequence of elementary radical reactions . Solid fuels , such as wood and coal , first undergo endothermic pyrolysis to produce gaseous fuels whose combustion then supplies the heat required to produce more of them. Combustion is often hot enough that incandescent light in the form of either glowing or

9114-404: The thermal advantage from preheating the combustion air, or enriching it in oxygen. Combustion in oxygen is a chain reaction in which many distinct radical intermediates participate. The high energy required for initiation is explained by the unusual structure of the dioxygen molecule. The lowest-energy configuration of the dioxygen molecule is a stable, relatively unreactive diradical in

9212-406: The third vessel is on turnaround. By using pure oxygen with the fuel gas, essentially pure CO 2 is produced which is directly amenable to geologic sequestration or for use (such as for enhanced oil recovery operations). Sufficient fuel gas is produced by the process to satisfy the heat requirements of the retort and to generate sufficient electricity for the process requirements, thereby eliminating

9310-739: The western U.S. and Israel's Negev Desert , where plans exist to expand oil-shale extraction despite a water shortage. Depending on technology, above-ground retorting uses between one and five barrels of water per barrel of produced shale-oil. A 2008 programmatic environmental impact statement issued by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management stated that surface mining and retort operations produce 2 to 10 U.S. gallons (7.6 to 37.9 L; 1.7 to 8.3 imp gal) of waste water per 1 short ton (0.91 t) of processed oil shale. In situ processing, according to one estimate, uses about one-tenth as much water. Environmental activists, including members of Greenpeace , have organized strong protests against

9408-482: The world occur in the United States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado , Utah , and Wyoming ; about 70% of this resource lies on land owned or managed by the United States federal government. Deposits in the United States constitute more than 80% of world resources; other significant resource holders being China, Russia, and Brazil. The amount of economically recoverable oil shale

9506-650: Was produced from oil shale. According to the World Energy Council , in 2008 the total production of shale oil from oil shale was 930,000 tonnes, equal to 17,700 barrels per day (2,810 m /d), of which China produced 375,000 tonnes, Estonia 355,000 tonnes, and Brazil 200,000 tonnes. In comparison, production of the conventional oil and natural gas liquids in 2008 amounted 3.95 billion tonnes or 82.1 million barrels per day (13.1 × 10 ^  m /d). Most exploitation of oil shale involves mining followed by shipping elsewhere, after which

9604-456: Was the first controlled chemical reaction discovered by humans, in the form of campfires and bonfires , and continues to be the main method to produce energy for humanity. Usually, the fuel is carbon , hydrocarbons , or more complicated mixtures such as wood that contain partially oxidized hydrocarbons. The thermal energy produced from the combustion of either fossil fuels such as coal or oil , or from renewable fuels such as firewood ,

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