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Activation, refining, and use of oil shale

a technology of oil shale and adsorption properties, which is applied in the production of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures, petroleum industry, etc., can solve the problems of insufficient adsorption properties of activated carbon for some materials, insufficient adsorption properties of activated carbon raw materials, and inability to achieve sufficient adsorption and stabilisation, etc., to achieve the effect of increasing the specific surface area activ

Inactive Publication Date: 2009-12-17
NANOTECH INVESTMENT 2
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0061]According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided an activated shale refining process, said process including irradiating activated oil shale with an ion beam to reduce uncarbonized organic material, N, S, H, and O thereby to increase the specific surface area active for absorption and / or adsorption.
[0101]The invention extends yet further to the use of activated oil shale in cigarette filters in order to reduce the amount of cadmium, lead and / or arsenic inhaled by a smoker.
[0103]The inventors believe that the invention has numerous advantages over known shale based absorption and adsorption preparation processes and used, including but not limited to:

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, despite its effectiveness, activated carbon's adsorption properties for some materials are not sufficiently strong.
Furthermore, the raw materials needed to produce activated carbon may be costly and / or time consuming to obtain.
In particular, these processes may not result in an adsorbent that is sufficiently refined and stable for use in commercial applications so that, for example, leaching does not occur during use of the adsorbent.
Furthermore, the prior art processes may also not result in an adsorbent material that is sufficiently homogeneous in its porosity and / or in an adsorbent material in which the pores are not sufficiently “open” to optimize their adsorption capacity.

Method used

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  • Activation, refining, and use of oil shale
  • Activation, refining, and use of oil shale
  • Activation, refining, and use of oil shale

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

Electromagnetic Radiation Activation of Oil Shale

[0118]During thermal activation, heat is transmitted from outside to the centre of oil shale particles by thermal conduction transforming an organic matter portion of the oil shale by carbonization and partial or total decomposition of carbonates of a mineral portion thereof. The expansion of gases generated by these reactions creates pores inside the grains.

[0119]In the case of chemical activation with hydrochloric acid for example, the penetration of the acid is also achieved from outside the particle towards the interior of the particle. The acid attacks the carbonates and dissolves certain alkaline elements like calcium, magnesium, sodium or potassium. The evolution of CO2 creates pores inside the grains.

[0120]Contrary to the above two activation modes, the activation mode by electromagnetic radiation reaches the entire particle at the same time allowing a more homogeneous activation.

Experimentation

[0121]The experiments were perfo...

example 2

Effect of the Origin of Oil Shale on Activated Oil Shale Performance

[0130]The activation of the oil shales creates adsorption sites in the carbonized organic matter and in the decomposed mineral matter. The adsorption of the organic compounds is attributed to the organic matter sites and the adsorption of metals is attributed to the mineral matter sites.

[0131]This represents an advantage of the activated oil shale in comparison with activated carbon since they could adsorb a larger range of contaminants. It is most probable that a transition phase composed with carbo-alunino-silcates occurs during the thermal activation of the oil shale thereby enhancing the adsorption phenomenon. As a result, the specific characteristics of the oil shale may significantly influence the properties of the activated products.

[0132]First, the composition varies from one oil shale deposit to another. Table 3 shows the composition of two Moroccan oil shale deposits: Timahdit in the Middle Atlas mountains...

example 3

Stabilisation of Activated Oil Shale by Soxhlet Extraction

[0137]Once activated, it is clearly important for the adsorption properties of the oil shale to remain as stable as possible.

[0138]The Soxhlet extractor is a laboratory apparatus shown in FIG. 2, normally used to extract a desired compound from a solid material. In the present invention, the extractor is used to eliminate the mineral elements which may undesirably cause leaching during the utilisation of the activated oil shale products.

[0139]In FIG. 2, the reference numerals identify the following components: 1: stirrer bar; 2: still pot; 3: distillation path; 4: thimble; 5: solid; 6: siphon top; 7: siphon exit; 8: expansion adapter; 9: condenser; 10: cooling water in valve; and 11: cooling water out valve.

[0140]An activated oil shale sample (50 g) is placed inside the thimble 4 made from thick filter paper, which is loaded into the main chamber of the Soxhlet extractor.

[0141]The condenser 9 ensures that any steam cools and ...

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Abstract

The invention provides the activation, refining and stabilization of oil shale. The stabilization may be performed by recirculative extraction, the activation by electromagnetic irradiation, steam, or by an inorganic base, and the refining by ion beam irradiation. The thus processed oil shale may be used to adsorb organic and inorganic contaminants from a variety of materials include materials of vegetable origin.

Description

[0001]The disclosure in South African Patent Application 2006 / 6169 is hereby incorporated by reference and forms an integral part of the disclosure in the present application.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates to the fields of the production and use of adsorbent materials. More particularly, it relates to the activation, refining, stabilisation, and use of oil shale as an adsorbent.BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION[0003]By far, the most widely used type of adsorbent materials are “activated” carbon products (the use of the terms “adsorbent” and “adsorption” herein include respectively any type of sorbent or sorption). Activated carbon is made from a substance having high carbon content—such as coal, wood and nut shells—by treating it to create many tiny pores between the carbon atoms. Due to this porosity, the activated carbon has a very large surface area per unit volume (i.e., specific surface) allowing it to be used to adsorb a variety of substances from gases or liquids...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): C10G1/00C10G1/04
CPCB01J20/20C10G1/047B01J20/24B01J20/22
Inventor VAN DER MERWE, PIETER GIDEOHANNACHE, HASSANBEKRI, OMAR
Owner NANOTECH INVESTMENT 2