Koel, M., W. K. Hollis FOSSIL FUEL TREATMENT WITH IONIC LIQUIDS
Institute of Chemistry, Tallinn Technical University, Tallinn 12618, Estonia (vmihkel@argus.chemnet.ee)
Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545
The conversion of extensive resources of brown coal and oil shale throughout the world into value-added products such as alternative synthetic fuels and/or high-quality chemical feedstocks is a challenging goal. A potential efficient and environmentally friendly process utilizes room temperature ionic liquids as "green chemistry" solvents. The first step to determine the value of such a system is to characterise the various components of an oil shale extracted with these solvents.
In this study the use of an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium, to extract organic compounds from Estonian oil shale kerogen at various temperatures was examined. Results at 175° C have yielded soluble products with an increase of ten times over that obtained using conventional organic solvents. There were observed significant differences in the extraction behaviour between different types of Estonian oil shale and that of the retorting process because of the unique chemical composition and structure of their organic components and process method.