화학공학소재연구정보센터
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.50, No.3, 1730-1738, 2011
Extraction of Kerogen from Oil Shale (Puertollano, Spain) with Supercritical Toluene and Methanol Mixtures
The solubility of kerogen from Puertollano (Spain) oil shales in supercritical mixtures of toluene and methanol with 20, 40, 60, and 80 mol % methanol were studied in a range of temperatures and pressures of 603-623 K and 7.0-20.0 MPa, respectively. The bitumen obtained with each of the solvents and operation conditions was analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with a mass detector. The results indicate that the composition of the bitumen is dependent on the supercritical solvent and independent of the operation conditions. Solubility data were correlated with the Chrastil equation. This model correlates the experimental data properly when the conditions are distant from the critical point. From this equation, the solvation parameter k was found to be between 0.9 and 1.5 for different mixtures of toluene and methanol. Singular values of k were obtained for mixtures with 20 and 40 mol % methanol. This is probably due to a certain molecular aggregation between the toluene and methanol, perhaps an azeotrope, at those concentrations and operation conditions.