Microwave-Assisted Solvent Extraction of Shale Oil From Jordanian Oil Shale

Abstract

Oil shale as an alternative to oil is considered a major possible source of energy in Jordan which has an estimated 50 billion tons of geological proven reserves that are widely distributed all over the country. Many methods have been used for extracting shale oil from oil shale. This investigation suggests the application of a novel technique, namely microwaveassisted extraction. Several solvents were tested for extractive capacity at different temperatures (50 to 140 C) by the microwave irradiation of the investigated oil shale. The extraction results showed that all the solvents except hexane followed a sigmoid behaviour. Methanol exhibited the highest extractive capacity of about 23% of shale oil. Several particle sizes in the range of 94-910 m were examined and the results indicated that shale oil extraction is not diffusion controlled. The dynamic effect of extraction was also considered and found to have a very little effect after 10 minutes of irradiation.

Numerical Simulation of Oil Shale Pyrolysis under Microwave Irradiation Based on a Three-Dimensional Porous Medium Multiphysics Field Model

“…In addition, Figure 7 shows that the thermal field temperature distribution was similar to the electric field of the oil shale sample. To better evaluate the thermal uniformity within oil shale, the coefficient of variance was introduced, as shown in Equation (23).…”

“…Considering that it has many unique advantages in comparison with conventional heating [16][17][18][19], microwave heating has been proposed for oil shale pyrolysis [20][21][22]. Samer et al [23] introduced a novel technique to extract shale oil from oil shale and tested several solvents for extractive capacity at different temperatures during the microwave irradiation of oil shale. Ana et al [24] studied the transformation of an oil shale sample using two different heating strategies: microwave irradiation and conventional heating.…”

Applied techniques for residual oil recovery from source rocks: A review of current challenges and possible developments

“…On the other hand, oil in the reservoir system can be found free within matrix pores of the well. [125] The fractionating extraction of Mohammadi et al [108] CaO, MgO, and CuO 750, 1500, and 2250 60-120 Chen et al [109] Water and glycol 750, 1250, and1750 15 Li et al [110] Ethanol, methanol, acetone, dimethylformamide (DMF), and hexane / 600-3000 Al-Gharabli et al [111] CaF 2 and H 2 SO 4 350 10-200 Wang et al [112] CaF 2 and H 2 SO 4 300 5400 Wang et al [113] Iron oxide nanoparticles 600, 800, and 1000 1800 Yang et al [114] N/A 2000 30 Li et al [115] H 2 SO 4 6000 21-600 Yuan et al [116] organic matter from source rocks, for example, may be highly dependent on the kerogen type, adsorption forces, mineralogy of the organic matter, and porosity of the matrix, which traps the organic matter deep within the intramolecular structure. [126] Various techniques that use various types of solvents, configurations, and number of fractionation steps have been reported.…”