Fluidised bed pyrolysis of Moroccan oil shales using the hamburg pyrolysis process

In the present work, the pyrolysis of the Moroccan Timahdit oil shale was studied, using a fluidised bed process. Four experiments were carried out at different temperatures between 520 and 630 degreesC. By mass balance could be shown that in relation to the kerogen content up to 60 wt.% of oil and 25 wt.% of gas are obtained. These are 40% higher yields compared with the Fischer assay. It was shown that the carbon in the residue, which is much lower (only 12 wt.%) than in the Fischer assay (26 wt.%), explains this difference. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.