Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

STATUS OF OIL SHALE PROJECTS (Underline denotes changes since June 1994)
COMMERCIAL PROJECTS (Continued)
The experience of the 1,000 TPD unit was taken into consideration to design two new units. In January, 1987, two new 1,000
TPD retorts were put in operation also at Kohtla-Jarve. Alongside these units, a new battery of four 1,500 TPD retorts, with a
new circular chamber design, is under construction. Oil yield of 85 percent of Fischer Assay is expected. The construction of
an installation comprising four 1,500 ton per day prototype generators with a circular chamber started at
semicoking Kohtla-
Jarve in 1988. At present, however, the construction has been suspended due to investment problems.
Oil from kukersite has a high content of oxygen compounds, mostly resorcinol series phenols. Over 50 shale oil products
(predominantly non-fuel) are currently produced. These products are more attractive economically than traditional fuel oil.
The low calorific gas produced as byproduct in the gas generators has a hydrogen sulfide content of 8 to 10 grams per cubic
meter. After desulfurization, it is utilized as a local fuel for the production of thermal and electric power.
Pulverized oil shale ash is also finding extensive use in the fertilizer and cement industries.
Project Cost: Not disclosed
MAOMING COMMERCIAL SHALE OIL PLANT -
(S-130)
Maoming Petroleum Industrial Corporation, SINOPEC, Maoming, China
Construction of the Maoming processing center began in 1955. Oil shale is mined by open pit means with power-driven
shovels, and electric locomotives and dump-cars. Current mining rates are 35 million tons of oil shale per year. Ap
proximately one-half is suitable for retort feed. The Fischer Assay of the oil shale averages 65 percent oil yield.
Two types of retort are used: a cylindrical retort with a gasification section, and a rectangular gas combustion retort. Oil shale
throughput is 150 and 185 tons per day per retort, respectively. The present facility consists of two batteries containing a total
of 48 rectangular gas combustion retorts and two batteries with a total of 64 cylindrical retorts.
Production at Maoming has been approximately 100,000 tons of shale oil per year. Although the crude shale oil was formerly
refined, it is now sold directly as fuel oil. The shale ash is also used in making cement and building blocks.
A 50 megawatt powerplant burning oil shale fines in three fluidized bed boilers has been planned and detailed compositional
studies of the Maoming shale oil have been completed. These studies can be used to improve the utilization of shale oil in the
chemical industry.
- MOBIL PARACHUTE SHALE OIL PROJECT Mobil
Oil Corporation (S-140)
Mobil has indefinitely deferred development plans for its shale property located on 12.000 acres five miles north of Parachute.
The United States Bureau of Land Management completed the Environmental Impact Statement for the project in 1986.
- MOROCCO OIL SHALE PROJECT ONAREP,
Royal Dutch/Shell (S-150)
During 1975 a drilling and mining survey revealed 13 oil shale deposits in Morocco, including three major deposits at Timahdit,
Tangier, and Tarfaya from which the name T3 for the Moroccan oil shale retorting process was derived.
In February 1982, the Moroccan Government concluded a $45 billion, three phase joint venture contract with Royal
Dutch/Shell for the development of the Tarfaya deposit including a $4.0 billion, 70,000 barrels per day plant. However, the
project faced constraints of low oil prices and the relatively low grade of oil shale.
Construction of a pilot plant at Timahdit was completed with funding from the World Bank in 1984. During the first quarter
of 1985, the plant went through a successful shakedown test, followed by a preliminary single retorting test. The preliminary
test produced over 25 barrels of shale oil and proved the fundamental process feasibility of the T3 process. More than a dozen
single retort tests were conducted to prove the process feasibility as well as to optimize the process conditions. The pilot plant
utilizes the T3 process developed jointly by Science Applications, Inc., and the Office National de Recherche et d'Exploitation
Petrolieres (ONAREP) of Morocco. The 73 process consists of a semi-continuous dual retorting system in which heat from
one vessel that is being cooled provides a portion of the energy that is required to retort the shale in the second vessel. The
pilot plant has a 100 tons of raw shale per day capacity using 17 gallons per ton shales. The design of a demonstration plant,
which will have an initial output of 280 barrels per day, rising to 7,800 barrels per day when full scale commercial production
begins, has been deferred. A commercial scale mine development at study Timahdit was conducted by Morrison-Knudsen.
The T3 process will be used in conjunction with other continuous processes in Morocco. In 1981/1982, Science Applications,
Inc., conducted for ONAREP extensive process option studies based on all major processes available in the United States and
abroad and made a recommendation in several categories based on the results from the economic analysis. An oil-shale
laboratory including a laboratory scale retort, computer process model and computer process control, has been established in
Rabat with assistance from Science Applications, Inc.
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SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995