Investigation of oil-shale pyrolysis processing conditions using thermogravimetric analysis

Paul T. Williams and Nasir Ahmad

Applied Energy, 2000, vol. 66, issue 2, 113-133

Abstract: Four oil-shale samples from two regions of Pakistan have been pyrolysed in a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) in relation to heating rate and temperature using non-isothermal and isothermal analysis respectively. The heating rates investigated in the TGA were 5-40 K min-1 to a final temperature of 950°C. The main region of weight loss corresponding to hydrocarbon oil and gas release was between 200 and 620°C, and at higher temperatures, significant weight loss was attributed to carbonate decomposition. It was found that for the oil-shale samples analysed in the TGA, increasing the heating rate shifted the reaction to higher temperatures. The final temperature of the pyrolysis was investigated using the isothermal TGA. The temperature range studied was from 350 to 485°C. The data were analysed to determine the kinetic parameters of activation energy and frequency factor using two methods, the Arrhenius and Coats-Redfern analyses. The order of reaction was determined as unity. There was no clear relationship between activation energy and heating rate. The Coats-Redfern method of analysis gave consistently lower values of activation energy compared with the Arrhenius method. Isothermal analysis gave similar results to those obtained using the non-isothermal analysis.

Keywords: Kinetics; Oil; shale; Pyrolysis; TGA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-2619(99)00038-0
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:66:y:2000:i:2:p:113-133

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().