Thermal characterisation of Australian oil shales

There has been a significant research effort on the development of an oil industry based on Australian oil shales. However, to date the research has been based mainly on the processing aspects of oil shale. The thermal analyses of oil shales, while having been the subject of many studies, have been limited to some extent by instrumentation and analytical techniques. This paper reports on thermal analysis studies utilising traditional thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The application of modern thermal analysis techniques such as high resolution TG (HRTG) and modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) is also examined and compared to the traditional methods.