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UTILIZATION OF SEMI-COKE OF ESTONIAN SHALE OIL INDUSTRY

2002; Estonian Academy Publishers; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3176/oil.2002.2.03

1736-7492

H Arro, A Prikk, T Pihu, I Öpik†,

Petroleum Processing and Analysis

Semi-coke (spent shale) from Kiviter retorts containing organic matter and stored in semi-coke dumps is one of the main problems of Estonian oil shale industry.In 2005 the proposed charge of storing environmentally hazardous semi-coke will be 4.5 times more than that of oil shale ash.This may make shale oil production economically unprofitable.In this paper some methods of semi-coke utilization are presented. Problems with Semi-CokeOne of the main problems of Estonian oil shale industry is semi-coke waste.There are two methods in use to produce shale oil processing in Kiviter retorts (Kohtla-Jarve and Kividli oil plants) and in retorts with solid heat car- rier (SHC), (UTT-3000, Narva, Estonian Power Plant (PP)).The semi-coke from SHC retorts is burnt to ashes in circulating aerofountain furnace, and the final waste product is oil shale ash.The semi-coke from Kiviter retorts containing organic matter is, however, mostly not used at present and stored as waste on so-called semi-coke dumps.As semi-coke is an environmentally more hazardous matter than oil shale ash, some of its utilization methods are analyzed below.Earlier the storing of semi-coke in hills was no big problem.The new pollution charges will change the situation drastically.Storing of wet semi- coke without its utilization may make the production of shale oil economi- cally unprofitable.The taxes for wet semi-coke stored in dumps will in years 2002-2005 increase more than 1.7 times.The growing rate, 20 % per year, will evidently remain stable in the near future.It is clear that utilization of semi-coke is really important for Estonian oil industry.