Development And Research On The Oil Shale Retort New Process Of Fushun Retort

As the earliest applied refining technology of oil shale in theworld, Fushun oil shale retort technology enjoys a very long history.However, compared with other similar technologies developed later,it seems to be simpler with lower oil recovery rate----which is only60-65%. Obviously, the resources have not been fully utilized andthe economic benefits are not favorable. In order to improve thistechnology to make it world advanced, we conducted a laboratoryanalysis and assessment to the oil shale samples, and made aresearch on material balance and heat balance of new process. Asa result, we put forward this new process of Fushun retort.According to the original process, the upper part of the retort is theretort section and the lower part is the gasification section.Generally, retort heat mainly comes from two sources: a) thesemi–cokes, which undergo chemical reaction in the gasificationsection; b) the thermal cycling gas, which is also used to produceheat. And since the air is aerated to the retort bottom forgasification reaction and surplus oxygen enters the retort sectionfor combustion, some oil will be burnt. In this way, the oil yield willas a consequence be reduced. In contrast, according to the newprocess, the lower part of the retort has been changed to semi-cokecooling section, and the cold circulation retort gas instead of air orsteam is aerated into the retort bottom to absorb the semi-cokesensible heat. Under such circumstances, the oil in the retort will nolonger be burnt while providing enough retort heat. Apart from that,Fushun oil shale is of low grade, which can not provide enoughretort heat, so the remaining gas of the old equipment is needed fora supplement. Furthermore, the heating furnace has adoptedconstant temperature heating, and instead of traditional washingprocess of three groups, more efficient and environmentally-friendlyrecovery equipments----such as the indirect cooling tower, electricaltar precipitator and oil scrubber have been applied to the condensate recovery system for higher oil yielding.If we adopt this new technology, the oil recovery rate will begreatly increased, resources will be more fully utilized more,economic benefits will significantly increase and the environmentalprotection situation will be greatly improved. To sum up, ourresearch has best demonstrated that this new oil shale retortprocess of Fushun retort is much more advantageous than the oldprocess.