Jordan University of Science and Technology
Effect of demineralization and heating rate on the pyrolysis kinetics of Jordanian oil shales
Authors:
Mohammad Al-Harahsheh, Omar Al-Ayed, John Robinson, Sam Kingman, Adnan Al-Harahsheh, Khalid Tarawneh, Abdurrahman Saeid, Richelieu Barranco
Abstract:
The effect of mineral matter content on the activation energy of oil shale pyrolysis has been studied. Kerogen
was isolated from raw oil shale by sequential HCl and HCl/HF digestion. Oil shale and kerogen samples were
pyrolyzed in a Thermogravimetric Analyzer at different heating rates (1, 3, 5, 10, 30, and 50 ?C/min) up to a
temperature of 1000 ?C. Total mass loss of all oil shale samples remained almost constant irrespective of the
heating rate employed, whereas it decreased with the increase of heating rate for kerogen (74.5 to 71.4%).
From the pyrolysis profile activation energy (Ea) was found to vary between 70 and 83 kJ/mol for oil shale,
while 82?112 kJ/mol has been determined for isolated kerogen. An increase of both Ea and pre-exponential
factor was observed with an increasing heating rate. It is concluded that the mineral matter in oil shale
enhances catalytic cracking as is evident from the reduced Ea values of oil shale compared with those for
kerogen.