Oil Shale Retorting in a Bottom-Burning Retort

Abstract

An experimental study of a bottom-burning oil shale retort is described. It is shown that for a constant oxidizer flow the combustion front moves at a uniform velocity through the bed. This leads to the use of a moving coordinate system attached to the combustion front in evaluating the various thermal processes occurring in the retort. It is shown that the high quality of oil produced can be tied to a thermal refluxing not present in other retort processes.