Show shale retort and ref refinery anery at colorado school of mines the porter process plant for the recovery and refining of oil from shale has been completed and successfully operated at the colorado school of mines at golden the porter plant differs from other shale treating retorts in that it produces a refined commercial product ready for the market the present equipment consists of a retort with an estimated daily capacity of thirty six tons of shale with condensers for the separation of the oil ammonium sulp sulphate hale and there are also two steam stills one for the extraction of the volatile element from the oil and the other for producing ammonium water from which the ammonium crystals are recovered A still for the manufacture of lubricating oils will shortly be erected at the present time the lubricating stock is all that remains after treating the crude oil the first impression that one gains from examination of the porter plant is the fact that all the heat comes from one single combined oil and gas burner and the amount of fuel required to operate it is exceedingly small the retort is of the vertical type A patented device covers the heating system and the recovery of a most valuable product which has heretofore been given little consideration in shale treatment next to the minimum amount of fuel needed the most impressive thing about the porter plant is the fact that at least one half of the volume of crude oil is turned into volatile motor spirits high gasoline extraction over twenty gallons of gasoline are made from a barrel of shale oil most of the shale oil heretofore produced in this country contains not to exceed five gallons of gasoline which is recovered by ordinary methods of distillation the blending of the with volatile elements having higher boiling points and lower specific gravity is the secret of this unusually large percentage of motor spirits eliminating one half of the volume of oil which cah can be manufactured into various grades of lubricant the present plant produces over twenty gallons of gasoline a and nd thirty pounds of ammonium sulphate from a ton of shale the quantity of produced will run from five to seven gallons if if desired this element can be separated and sold in the market the current retail price of in denver is 80 cents a gallon but its use in the porter plant as a blend for the purpose of lowering the flash point of the naphtha and kerosene precludes its use as a separate product the plant is continuous in operation and entirely automatic from the time the shale drops into the retort until the refined products are drawn off it is not toli touched ched by hu human man hands the retort is fifteen feet high of oval construction and the crushed shale is fed by gravity to the top of the retort four different heat zones the retort is divided into four different heat zones each zone or section of the retort having an agitator or stirring device which keeps the shale going all the time in the two upper zones the heat is not allowed to exceed degrees F it is in these two zones that all the crude oil is drawn from the shale the shale then passes on into the lower heat zones where the temperature is increased to from 1000 to 1200 degrees F and it is in these two zones that the ammonium sulphate and gases are formed the shale then passes out of the lower heat zones and drops into a specially designed gas producer where high pressure steam is applied it is demonstrated that this special gas producer gives a 75 per cent increase in the volume of gas secured in the retort proper thus adding greatly to the net value of the recovered elements the gases passing from the retort are now carried to what is termed a knockdown box where the heavier oils are separated from this box the gases then pass into the various condensers where further treatment releases the volatile oils and ammonium after the gases have been robbed of all their values the fixed gas is piped into a and returns to the furnace under the retort to be used for fuel it has been shown that there is more than a sufficient quantity of non condensable gas to fire the retort and furnish other power for the operation of the agitators in the retort and fans for drawing off the vapors patented by porter process company the patent rights of this plant are owned by the porter process com company pany a colorado corporation of which john porter is president mr porter has bee been n identified with oil operations for a number of years he has been active in development of oil shale since it first attracted public attention he has financed the construe construction ebion of other retorts but this plant represents his final and completed effort the plant itself is the design of john russell chief chemist and engineer for the porter organization mr russell is probably the only man in the united states who knows the shale from pers personal onal contact with shale operations in scotland and who also has been identified with oil refining I 1 in the united states he is an expert on the treatment of petroleum gas by the absorption method he was connected with one of the wyoming oil companies and formerly was executive of the broxburn brodburn Brox burn shale company of scotland he has built bri and coal byproducts by products plants he has designed and superintended super intended the construction of cas gasoline absorption plants and oil re finers in various parts of the country plant to be moved to debeque the golden plant is the property of the buffalo oil shale company which was organized by mr porter a short time ago As soon as demonstrations are fully completed it will be taken down and shipped to debeque and installed on the companas comp anys property it is a complete commercial unit but will be enlarged as rapidly as conditions justify certain portions of the present plant are sufficiently large to treat a greater quan tit of shale the steam stills now at goldel goldei can handle barrels daily the con are also large enough for more retort capacity the present retort is an exact duplicate of all further installations for the purpose of increasing the capacity of the plant the number of retorts will simply be increased probable profit estimates probable N profit as estimated by mr air porter indicate that a plant of tons daily capacity should return 10 for each ton of shale treated provided the shale averaged one barrel or forty two gallons to the ton this estimate is based on actual recoveries in the present plant the amount of gasoline from shale so far treated proves conclusively that in excess of twenty gallons of gasoline an essential commodity can be recovered from a ton of oil shale in addition this does not take into consideration approximately twenty gallons of lubricating stock worth fully as much assuming that the refined oil is worth in the market 25 cents a gallon an allowance being made for 5 per cent loss there is a net value of 10 per barrel in addition there is a recovery of thirty pounds of ammonium sulphate valued at 6 cents a pound or in estimating the cost of producing this 1180 worth of salable elements consideration is taken of the maximum in cost of mining refinery operation amortization interest on investment Invest men t and overhead expense it is shown that this will be in the neighborhood of 3 per barrel thus showing a net profit in excess of 8 per barrel or a day on a ton equipment net returns from the lubricant should be at least leapt 4 berba perba per barrel arel of crude oil |