Investigation of mineral composition of oil shale

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the mineral composition of oil shale from different locations and relate it to their interval of occurrence. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transforms spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods were used for this invetigation. Hydrogen peroxide was used as the oxidant to eliminate the influence of organic matter in TGA. DRIFTS results indicated that most of the kerogen is in aliphatic hydrocarbon form and the peak of hydrocarbon nearly disappeared after oxidation. XRD results indicated that quartz, muscovite, kaolinite and calcite are the dominant minerals. Longkou and Changchun oil shale samples contain high percentage of calcite (12.9 and 11.7% CO2 respectively) while Fushun and Huadian oil shale samples contain less than 6% CO2. Especially, in Fushun oil shale sample, the content is below 3%. Kaolinite is found in Fushun oil shale sample, while muscovite is only found in Huadian oil shale sample. Integration of the XRD, DRIFTS and TGA results of the oil shale samples from different locations has provided a better way of mineral composition identification. © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.