Thermal cracking of black oil fuel in a mixture with shale

The results of studies performed for the development of a new process of the thermal cracking of tar as a suspension with ground Baltic oil shale in order to obtain motor fuel components are reported. The experimental results suggest undoubted advantages of the process over industrial thermal cracking because the deep degradation of tar (the yields of a gasoline fraction with bp to 180°C, middle distillates with bp of 180–360°C, and feedstock for catalytic cracking with bp of 360–520°C were ~12, 43–44, and ~15–16 wt % on an initial tar basis) was achieved upon the single-stage processing of the raw material under relatively mild conditions (5 MPa, 425°C, and a feed space velocity of 1.0 h⁻¹). The resulting coke-like products and V and Ni contained in the raw material were deposited on the mineral matter of shale and removed from the reaction zone with the liquid products of the process.