Pyrolysis of Oils from Unconventional Resources

Burl Donaldson (), Brian Hughes, Eric N. Coker and Nadir Yilmaz ()
Additional contact information
Burl Donaldson: Energy Analyst LLC, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA
Brian Hughes: Energy Analyst LLC, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA
Eric N. Coker: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA
Nadir Yilmaz: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: In this study, oils from various sources were subjected to pyrolysis conditions; that is, without oxidizer, as the samples were heated to 500 °C, and held at that temperature. The oils studied included: (1) heavy oil from Grassy Creek, Missouri; (2) oil from tar sands of Asphalt Ridge in Utah; (3) mid-continent oil shales of three formations (two of Chattanooga formation, Pennsylvanian (age) formation, and Woodford formation); and (4) a Colorado Piceance Basin shale. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) with either gas chromatography (GC) or mass spectrometry (MS) were used to quantify the produced gases evolved in the tests. Purge gases of helium, argon, and humid carbon dioxide were utilized. Larger scale pyrolysis tests were conducted in a tube furnace coupled to a MS and a GC. The results consistently showed that pyrolysis occurred between 300 °C and 500 °C, with the majority of gases being mainly hydrogen and light alkanes. This behavior was essentially consistent, regardless of the oil source.

Keywords: enhanced oil recovery; pyrolysis; unconventional oil resource; oil shale; tar sands; superheat steam (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3455/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/8/3455/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:8:p:3455-:d:1123987

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().