Show I 1 OF OIL SHALE oil shale occurs in bids or strata ranging in thickness from a fo fe s inches to several teet feet and its yield in oil ranges from practically noth ing to 90 0 gallons or more a ton on the quantity and quality of oil that can call be obtained from a given shale will depend to a consid raDle extent exten on the methods used in obtaining the oil the types of 0 retort rate of heating beating removal ot of vapors etc in en eral it may be said that a greater quantity js is obtained with rapid retorting and conversely a much less amount with a tong long distillation period it lie he distillation is carried on too rapidly there Is danger of do composition of the oil vapors by excessive temperatures distillation should be rapid enough however to prevent stagnation of oil vapors within the hot retort or connections connections and should progress at a uniform rate when the bottom of 0 the retort has b become acome a dull the distillation ot of oil is completed as their temperature is well above abort the final oil yielding temperature tury ture tor oil at the labu laboratory atory of 0 R 11 II 9 south west temple the sample ot of shale to be analyzed is first crushed to about one bourth inch size A weighed amount is placed in a revolving iron drum and gradually heated to a MO dui red during the heating period stearn Is s passed through the retort which mixture passes out to a vertical condenser where it is and collected in suitable containers tria water Is then separated from the oil the oil vi weighed eigher and fron from its weight and specific gravity the iha guint number er a ot gallons ton ot of shie as s calculated there Is always a large amount ot of spent shale or ash left in the retort which varies from 46 45 to 80 pe per cent of the sample up to 10 the present time no commercial use nas nag been found for this ash and its disposal becomes more or less of a serious problem in a large plant during the distillation period a considerable quantity of inflatable gas is given off in commercial plants this gas may be used tor for heating the retorts frequently Frequent lk the oil obtained from the sample ot of shale Is given a fractional distillation and the cuts reported are as follows naptha that portion of the tha distillate with a boiling point below dg C burning oil that portion of the distill distillate te with a boiling point between 16 02 dg C dg C dg C lubricating oil that portion of the distillate with a boiling point over dg C the refining ot of shale oil Is much 1 like that ot of petroleum although the operations are more complex and more expensive anale oil differs from crude petroleum in containing certain organic compounds that have a particularly bad tend to form gummy deposits and must be ba removed before the product produce is marketable also shale oil Is more highly uli unsaturated salu rated than petroleum and hence require more careful refining the removal of unsaturated products and compounds having a bad odor necessitates several distillations and acid and alkali trea treatments tranis which increases the refining costs and losses |