Process and apparatus for converting oil shale or tar sands to oil
AssigneeChattanooga Corporation
InventorsChalmer G. Kirkbride, James A. Doyle, Fred Hildebrandt
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Abstract
The invention relates to a continuous process for producing synthetic crude oil from oil bearing material, e.g., oil shale or tar sand, through continuous process for producing synthetic crude oil from bituminous tar sand or shale. The process includes treating the tar sand or shale to produce a fluidizable feed, feeding the fluidizable feed to a fluidized bed reactor, and fluidizing and reacting the fluidizable feed in the fluidized bed reactor with substantially only hydrogen.
Claims22
A process for producing oil from a substantially dry oil bearing feed wherein said feed is tar sand or oil shale, comprising the steps of:
- a. introducing said feed in a fluidizable form into a fluidized bed reactor;
- b. introducing a fluidizing medium into the fluidized bed reactor, said fluidizing medium including at least hydrogen;
- c. fluidizing said introduced feed with said fluidizing medium in the reactor to form a fluidized bed;
- d. continuously reacting said feed with substantially only hydrogen in the fluidized bed reactor at a temperature of at least 900° F.;
- e. continuously discharging a product stream and spent solids from said fluidized bed reactor.
A process for producing oil from a substantially dry tar sand or a substantially dry shale feed comprising:
- introducing said feed in a fluidizable form into a fluidized bed reactor at a first temperature;
- introducing a fluidizing hydrogen mixture into the fluidized bed reactor at a second temperature, wherein the second temperature is greater than said first temperature;
- fluidizing said fluidizable feed by contacting the feed with the fluidizing hydrogen mixture to form a fluidized bed in the fluidized bed reactor
- heating said feed to a third temperature by contacting the feed with the fluidizing hydrogen mixture and thereby maintaining the fluidized bed at said third temperature, wherein said third temperature is between said first temperature and said second temperature;
- continuously reacting the feed with substantially only hydrogen in the fluidized bed reactor at the third temperature and at about 600 psi pressure;
- and
- continuously discharging a product stream and spent solids from said fluidized bed reactor, wherein the product stream includes synthetic crude oil;
- wherein the third temperature is between about 900° F. and about 1000° F.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.