Until recently, many shales were considered unsatisfactory feed-stocks because of their relatively low oil yields in the Fischer Assay test and in conventional thermal retorting. In many instances — most notably in the case of Devonian marine shales of the eastern United States-Fischer Assay oil yields, per unit weight percent of organic shale content, have been less than half of those obtained from the more familiar but less abundant Eocene lacustrine shales of the Green River area of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. This strongly suggests that yield differences are related to the chemistry of the specific kerogen being retorted, and in particular to its hydrogen content. ICT work has shown that elemental hydrogen can react with kerogen to enhance the yield of shale oil and hydrocarbon gases obtained by retorting. This work led to the HYTORT TM concept for the production of syncrude and gas.
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