Investigating the impact of temperature on oil shale conversion via supercritical methanolysis: Experimentation, characterization and mechanism insight

Da Cui, Jiawei Zhang, Qing Wang, Xuehua Zhang, Moslem Fattahi, Chunlei Wu, Yixi Wu, Bin Liu and Jinghui Zhang

Energy, 2025, vol. 329, issue C

Abstract: In this study, supercritical methanolysis experiments were conducted for Chinese Beipiao (BP) and Jordanian El-Lajjun (EL) oil shales at various temperatures. The methanol-soluble portion (SP), insoluble residue (ISR), and gas were collected and analyzed, revealing the reaction mechanisms and temperature effects in oil shale supercritical methanolysis. The obtained results demonstrated that supercritical methanolysis of oil shale could achieve a mild conversion (<400 °C). The presence of methanol significantly enhanced the SP yield, exceeding the shale oil yield from oil shale obtained from pyrolysis. Maximum SP yields of 5.33 % and 14.43 % for BP oil shale and EL oil shale, respectively, at 370 °C. The results showed that the primary components of the SPs were n-alkanes and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Additionally, a comprehensive characterization of the products obtained at various temperatures during supercritical methanolysis identified 11 possible chemical reactions. These results elucidated how temperature influences the molecular composition and structure of methanolysis products, revealed the reaction mechanism underlying oil shale's supercritical methanolysis, and verified the feasibility of producing liquid fuels through this process.

Keywords: Oil shale; Supercritical methanolysis; Hydrothermal liquefaction; Regulatory mechanism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225024454
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:energy:v:329:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225024454

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136803

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

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