Influence of packing height on the pyrolysis products of Jimsar (China) oil shale

Abstract The effect of particle packing height (10, 30, 50, 70 mm) on the yield and composition of oil shale pyrolysis products is investigated. The results show that the oil yield could decrease 1.0% and the noncondensable gases yield could increase 0.5% as the oil shale packing height increased from 10 to 70 mm. The main hydrocarbon gases are C1–C6 gases, and the increase of packing bed height could decrease the relative content ratio of alkanes to alkenes in hydrocarbon gases. The primary components of the derived oil are aliphatic compounds, aromatic compounds, and compounds containing heteroatoms in the carbon atoms range of C6–C28. And the hydrogen type of shale oil is mainly composed of methylene groups (about 70%) with longer alkyl chains, and CH 3 in aromatics, cycloalkanes, and alkanes. The chemical composition and hydrogen type have certain regularity changes with the changing of packing height, attributing to the effect of temperature gradients between surface and center of packing bed, and the diffusing time of products through the packing bed.