Union Oil Company of California

John H Duir

Roland F Deering

Milan R Skripek

A dry sealing leg apparatus is comprised of four chambers through which a moving bed of retorted shale particulates from an oil shale retort is passed serially: a surge chamber, a gas injection chamber, a seal leg chamber, and a gas disengaging chamber. In the gas injection chamber, a sealing gas penetrates the moving bed of shale and divides into two portions. One portion travels countercurrently to the shale through the surge chamber and enters the retort at a positive pressure to seal product gases therein. A second portion travels co-currently with the shale through the seal leg chamber and gas disengaging chamber and exits at a pressure less than that of the retort, having been reduced in pressure by resistance to its passage through the shale. A method is provided wherein shale particulates are retorted, then passed through the dry sealing leg to reduce pressure, and crushed at a lower pressure than the operating pressure of the retort, following which the crushed retorted particulates are transported by an entraining gas stream to a fluidized combustor in which a substantial proportion of combustible materials on the shale particulates is burned to release heat energy for recovery from the flue gases.

Apparatus with moving bed pressure letdown stage for recovering retorted

Retorted shale particles are recovered from a retort and delivered to a gas lift for transport to a fluidized combustor by passage, serially, through a sealing vessel, a crusher preferably operating at retort pressure, and a surge vessel. In the sealing vessel, a sealing gas is introduced, and after commingling with the shale, the gas passes countercurrently to the shale and enters the retort, thus sealing the retort gases in the retort while separating the retorted shale from the retort gases. Retorted shale from the sealing vessel is transported to a crusher, wherein the shale is reduced in size to that suitable for combustion under fluidized conditions. To prevent the crushed shale from packing, the shale is passed to a surge vessel, wherein the crushed shale is held as a fluidized bed, from which the crushed shale is continuously withdrawn at a regulated rate and introduced into the gas lift leading to the fluidized combustor.

Apparatus for recovery of retorted shale from an oil shale retorting

Retorted shale particles are recovered from a retort and delivered to a gas lift for transport to a fluidized combustor by passage, serially, through a sealing vessel, a crusher preferably operating at retort pressure, and a surge vessel. In the sealing vessel, a sealing gas is introduced, and after commingling with the shale, the gas passes counter-currently to the shale and enters the retort, thus sealing the retort gases in the retort while separating the retorted shale from the retort gases. Retorted shale from the sealing vessel is transported to a crusher, wherein the shale is reduced in size to that suitable for combustion under fluidized conditions. To prevent the crushed shale from packing, the shale is passed to a surge vessel, wherein the crushed shale is held as a fluidized bed, from which the crushed shale is continuously withdrawn at a regulated rate and introduced into the gas lift leading to the fluidized combustor.

Recovery of retorted shale from an oil shale retorting process

Oil shale retorting process with a moving bed pressure letdown stage

High grade, low-sulfur needle coke is produced from heavy high-sulfur aromatic mineral oil feedstocks by a sequence of (1) fractionating the feedstock into a minor heavy fraction, and a major lighter fraction, (2) subjecting the lighter fraction to mild hydrofining, (3) blending the heavy fraction separated in step (1) with the heavy fraction of hydrofined oil from step (2), (4) subjecting the resulting blend to delayed thermal coking, and preferably (5) recycling to the coking step heavy coker gas oil recovered from the coker effluent. If desired, the aromaticity of the heavy hydrofined oil from step (2) can be increased by subjecting the same to thermal cracking prior to step (3).

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Yorba Linda, CA, United States of America

John H Duir