(363d) Thermal Gravimetric – Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Oil Shale

The fast depleting conventional oil reserves may be substituted by proven vast recourse of petroleum generated source rock known as oil shale. The petroleum source rock contains organic matter laminated with complex mineral matrix. The organic matter is mainly in kerogen form which posses an undefined high molecular weigh structure and upon heating releases the volatile matters. The generated volatile products are both, lighter gases as well as condensable higher boiling point substances known as shale oil, a prospective alternative for conventional oil. The yield of potential oil and composition distributions of pyrolysis process products depend primarily on time-temperature history. The shale oil production yield and improved quality oil from source rock could be enhanced from the knowledge of evolved products composition, competitive reactions mechanism and good knowledge of kinetics triplet. A Thermo-gravimetric analysis instrument with mass spectrometry is potent technique to capture the basic chemistry of the complex process. The evolved components identification based on molecular weight and their thermal behavior at different heating programs provide the in-depth understanding of the products formation and their reaction mechanisms. In this study we report the overall kinetic distribution of Mahogany oil shale pyrolysis using the TGA. The uncertainty quantification is estimated in the distribution of activation energies over conversion scale and simulated model free isoconversional kinetic model (not includes transport effects) is extrapolated to derive the conversion profiles at slow pyrolysis and flash pyrolysis. Single ion monitoring of mass spectra from combined TGA-MS analysis is used to reveals inflections in TGA thermograms during the continuous pyrolysis at different thermal ramps. Identification, relative quantification and thermal behavior of many hydrocarbon products and mineral gases are studied to understand the competitive pyrolysis mechanism of naturally complex petroleum source rock.