Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 461467

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Converting of oil shale and biomass into liquid hydrocarbons

via pyrolysis
Murat Kl a, Ayse Eren Ptn a, Basak Burcu Uzun a, Ersan Ptn b,
a
b

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Anadolu University, 26480 Eskisehir, Turkey
Department of Material Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Anadolu University, 26480 Eskisehir, Turkey

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 July 2013
Accepted 3 November 2013
Available online 3 December 2013
Keywords:
Co-pyrolysis
Oil shale
Biomass
Euphorbia rigida

a b s t r a c t
In this study, co-pyrolytic behaviors of oil shale and Euphorbia rigida were investigated at different temperatures in a xed bed reactor at 450, 500, and 550 C with a heating rate of 10 C/min in the presence of
nitrogen atmosphere. The obtained solid product (char) and liquid product (tar) were analyzed by using
different types of characterization techniques. Experimental results showed co-pyrolysis of oil shale and
biomass could be an environmental friendly way for the transformation of these precursors into valuable
products such as chemicals or fuels.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Although, consumption of fossil fuels causes environmental
problems such as global warming, acidication of earth caused
by acid rains and dispersing of metals originating from fossil fuels
they supply a large quantity of energy which is demanding by the
world. One of the most important reasons for this fact is the rapid
growth in population coupled with industrial and technological
developments and this leads the depletion of limited fossil fuel resources of the world [1]. This view has led the researches to the
alternative and renewable energy sources which should be not
only environment friendly but also sustainable, as it plays an
important role in reducing CO2 emissions and increasing the share
of renewable sources in the energy balance. This also means reducing the growing dependence of imported energy sources of developing countries. Looking at this point renewable energy sources
are expected to be economically competitive with conventional
energy sources in the future [2].
Among the renewable energy sources, biomass is a primary candidate because of being the only renewable source of xed carbon,
which is essential in the production of conventional hydrocarbon
liquid fuels by thermochemical methods mainly pyrolysis [3].
Biomass is a mixture of hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin and minor
amounts of other organics each of which converts to synthetic
fuels at different rates and also by various mechanisms [4]. For
having abundant biomass sources Turkey is an important agricul-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 222 321 3550x6518; fax: +90 222 323 9501.
E-mail address: eputun@anadolu.edu.tr (E. Ptn).
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2013.11.002

tural country and use of biomass as a source of energy instead of

burning them for destroying after harvest is very advantageous [5].
On the other hand, compared with the endangered resources of
petroleum, coal and natural gas, the amount of oil shale deposit is
also abundant. As dening oil shale, it is an organic rich sedimentary rock that contains signicant amount of kerogen from which
liquid hydrocarbons can be extracted [6]. Oil shale reserves have
gained an important attention as an energy resource while the
price of petroleum has risen. Averagely 1520% of oil can be obtained from a ton of oil shale. After the discovery of KonyaEregli
and Nigde-Bor reserves, Turkeys oil shale reserves increased from
1.64 billion tons to 9.64 billion tons. Turkey has the largest oil
shale reserves after the USA, Australia, Jordan, Israel, and Morocco
[7]. However, there are serious environmental concerns about the
utilization of oil shale because of the air pollutant SO2 and CO2
emissions. To respond the environmental demands, cleaner and
more efcient thermochemical conversion technologies are being
developed [8].
Converting organic matters into valuable products; namely solid (char), liquid (tar or oil) and gaseous products applicable by
pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is a thermochemical conversion process that
produces energy fuels with high fuel-to-feed ratio, and the process
can be easily adjusted to favor char, bio-oil or gas production [9].
Yields and compositions depend on pyrolysis conditions. Solid
product (char) can be used as fuel either directly as briquettes or
as charoil or charwater slurries because of having high caloric
value. However, it can also be used as feedstock to prepare
activated carbons. The liquid product which can be dened as
pyrolytic oil or tar and approximates to biomass in elemental
composition is composed of complex mixture of oxygenated

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M. Kl et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 461467

hydrocarbons. It can be used directly as a fuel such as marine diesel. It can also be added to petroleum renery feedstocks or upgraded by catalysts to produce good quality rened fuels.
Moreover it has a potential to be used as chemical feedstock. Tars
are the important and preferred products because of their high caloric values, ease of transportation and storage. Low nitrogen and
sulfur contents and convertibility into valuable chemicals are the
other signicant factors. The third product gas having a high caloric value may also be used as a fuel [10].
Another approach in utilization of carbonaceous materials is coprocessing [11]. Co-pyrolysis and co-gasication techniques have
received much attention in recent years for allowing the reduction
of the volume of biomass waste, recovering chemicals and replacing fossil fuels [12]. On the other hand, their conversion to renewable energy would be attractive for solving pollution problems,
reducing greenhouse gases emissions and more over providing
clean fuel with low sulfur content [13]. Primary importance is
the impact on the emissions of CO2, NOx, SOx, and volatile organic
compounds (VOC) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) [14].
Consequently, it is desirable to co-utilize the two sources for sustainable utilization of oil shale and also to minimize the impact
on the environment by the use of oil shale [15].
Terpene hydrocarbons are high energy capacity hydrocarbons.
They could be used as an engine fuel and as chemical feedstock.
One of the well-known terpenoid biomass is Euphorbiaceae family
and Euphorbia rigida, a member of Euphorbiaceae, grows on the arid
lands of Middle Anatolia in abundant quantities and without any
requirement of special labor, made this non-edible plant as a
new attractive energy source. About 2000 species have been
reported throughout the world, chiey in tropical regions and it
is known that 80 species of Euphorbia are found in Turkey [16].
E. rigida grows in a very close region to the oil shale reserves. There
are several reported studies for the pyrolysis of oil shale and
E. rigida individually [1623]. But there is not a study conducted
prior to this study including co-pyrolysis of oil shale with E. rigida.
Adding E. rigida to oil shale is expected to affect the yield and
quality of the tar in a good way. Co-pyrolysis of biomass with oil
shale will also decrease the emissions of gaseous carbons when it
is compared to pyrolysis of oil shale alone. On the basis of these
considerations, here in this study co-pyrolysis of oil shale and E.
rigida by slow pyrolysis and characterization of obtained solid
and liquid products was investigated.

2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
Raw E. rigida samples were collected from South-western Anatolia between Afyon and Denizli, Turkey. The plants were harvested between April and June. E. rigida was washed with
distilled water to remove any adhering substance and dried at
room temperature, ground in a high-speed rotary cutting mill
and stored in a cool and dark room. The plants leaves and stalks
were used in experiments. A particle size in the range from 0.425
to 1.25 mm was used for co-pyrolysis experiments. Oil shale samples used in this research were collected from Seyitmer which
were crushed, homogenized and ground in a high-speed rotary
cutting mill and a particle size in the range from 0.425 to
0.60 mm was used for co-pyrolysis experiments.
Proximate and ultimate analyses performed on oil shale and ER
to investigate the characteristics of raw materials. The ASTM Standard Test Method for Proximate Analysis of Wood Fuels (E 870-82)
was used to determine the weight fractions of moisture, volatile,
and ash contents. The xed carbon was obtained by subtracting
the percentages of volatile matter, moisture and ash from 100%.

The carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen contents of the samples were

determined using a LECO-CHN-628 elemental analyzer. The oxygen content was determined from the difference. Caloric values
of all samples were recorded with IKA C 200 calorimetric bomb.
As being the main constituents of biomass, holocellulose, lignin,
hemicellulose, and extractives were determined [24,25].
2.2. Pyrolysis in thermogravimetric analyzer
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is one of the most common
techniques used to investigate thermal events and kinetics during
pyrolysis of solid raw materials such as coal, biomass and plastic. It
provides a measurement of weight loss of the sample as a function
of time and temperature. The kinetics of these thermal events has
been determined by the application of the Arrhenius equation corresponding to the separate slopes of constant mass degradation
[26]. In this study, pyrolysis experiments were rst carried out
with a TGA under inert atmosphere. A SETERAM-LABSYS evo thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) was used to determine the weight
loss curves of samples. About 515 mg of sample was heated under
100 mL/min N2 ow at heating rate of 10 C/min from room temperature to 1000 C in TGA. This nitrogen ow rate ensures an inert
atmosphere on the sample during the run, while the small amount
of sample and the slow heating rate ensure that the heat transfer
limitations can be ignored. From these assays, the evolution with
temperature of weight loss (TG) and the weight loss rate (DTG)
were obtained for pyrolysis. The weight loss rate was calculated
by the expression:



dW
1 dWt

dt
W 0 dt

where W0 is the initial sample mass. After pyrolysis process, kinetic

parameters were derived and thermal decomposition ranges were
determined through the TGA results for each raw material.
2.3. Pyrolysis in xed-bed reactor
Pyrolysis experiments of raw materials and 1:1 wt.% of their
blends were carried out in a xed-bed Heinze retort at different
temperatures at 450, 500, and 550 C under nitrogen (N2) ow of
100 mL/min at a heating rate of 10 C/min. A schematic diagram
of the unit is represented in Fig. 1. The 316 stainless steel Heinze
retort has a volume of 400 mL (70 mm ID) and is externally heated
by an electrical furnace in which the temperature is measured by a
thermocouple inside the bed. The connecting pipe between reactor
and the trapping system was heated to 400 C to avoid condensation of the tar vapor. After reaching the nal pyrolysis temperature,
the reactor was set to cool at room temperature. Pyrolysis product
yields were determined gravimetrically by weighing the three
products. The liquid phase was collected in cold traps maintained
at about 0 C using salty-ice. The traps and reactor were washed
with dichloromethane solvent to obtain the liquid products. The liquid phase consisted of aqueous and oil phases were separated and
weighed. Char yields were determined by weighting the obtained
solid product. The gas yield was calculated by the difference.
All the yields are calculated on a dry-ash-free (daf) basis and the
average yields from at least three experiments are presented within the experimental measurement error less than 0.5%.
2.4. Characterization of products
Characterization studies for tar and char were conducted
according to the experimental conditions which gave the maximum tar yield. The FT-IR spectra of the char and tar were recorded
in the transmission mode between 4000 and 400 cm1 using a

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M. Kl et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 461467

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the xed-bed reactor.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Properties of raw materials
The results for proximate analysis of raw materials and their
blends, component and elemental analysis of E. rigida are given
in Table 1. As seen from Table 1, raw E. rigida consists of 48.67%
holocellulose, 29.50% hemicellulose, 37.92% lignin, and 12.55%
extractives.

Table 1
Characteristics (wt.%) of E. rigida, oil shale, and E. rigida-oil shale blend (as received).
E. rigida

Oil shale

Blend (1:1 wt.%)

Proximate analysis (%)

Moisture
Ash
Volatiles
Fixed C

3.00
6.40
76.80
13.80

5.78
66.50
19.87
7.85

4.20
38.84
43.34
13.62

Elementel analysis (%)

C
H
N
Oa
H/C
O/C
HHV (MJ/kg)

49.56
5.16
1.20
44.08
1.24
0.67
16.26

23.40
3.60
0.30
1.10
1.62
0.21
5.87

Component analysis (%)

Holocellulose
48.67
Hemicellulose
29.50
Lignin
37.92
Extractive
12.55
a

By difference.

Sample mass (%)

Bruker Tensor 27 Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer. Dried

KBr was used to prepare pellets from chars. Typically 10 mg of
sample at a concentration of 1% in KBr was used. Pure KBr disk
was used as the background and for each sample multiple spectra
were recorded to obtain highest signal-to-noise ratio.
GCMS analysis for liquid samples were performed using a
HewlettPackard 6890 Model gas chromatograph coupled to
a HP 5973 mass selective quadrupole detector using a
30 m  0.25 mm capillary column coated with a 0.25 mm thick lm
of 5% phenyl-methylpolysiloxane (HP-5). Helium was employed as
a carrier gas at a constant ow rate of 1.2 ml/min. The initial oven
temperature was 50 C held for 5 min and then programmed from
50 to 280 C at 5 C/min with an isothermal held for 30 min.
Splitless injection was applied at 280 C. The ion source and
transfer line temperatures were 230 and 300 C, respectively. Data
was acquired in the full-scan mode between m/z 33 and 533 and a
solvent delay of 5 min was used. Chromatographic peaks were
identied by means of NIST mass spectral data library and from
their retention times using standard compound when available.
The percentages of the peaks were calculated from the TIC (total
ion chromatogram) peak area.
SEM images of raw materials and chars were recorded by using
Zeiss EVO 50 Scanning Electron Microscope. Samples were
mounted on an aluminum stub using carbon bands and coated
with a thin layer of goldpalladium in an argon atmosphere using
Agar Sputter Coater.

Temperature (C)
Fig. 2. TG vs temperature curve of E. rigida, oil shale, and E. rigida-oil shale blend.

3.2. Pyrolytic characteristics in thermogravimetric analyzer

TG curve as a function of temperature for oil shale and E. rigida is
shown in Fig. 2. It is obvious that the weight loss of samples increased with increasing temperature. In the rst step, biomass
and oil shale lost all their water in the structure until 140 C.
E. rigida decomposed at a lower temperature than oil shale, starts
to react at about 200 C while oil shale starts to react about
250 C. The nal weight loss of E. rigida is much higher than oil
shale. This is related to the high content of ash in oil shale which
is not decomposed at this temperature. At around 300 C, since
E. rigida contained mainly cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, the

hemicelluloses started to decompose in the second step. In the nal

step, after cellulosic structure decompose, lignin which consists
435% of most woody biomass has a broad decomposition temperature range between 200 and 500 C [27]. Also, it was observed that
decomposition of ER and oil shale materials at 450 C or higher
progressed slowly because of the remaining lignin or char [28].
Mass loss behavior of E. rigida-oil shale blend was found between
the raw materials. According to the weight loss curve, 550 C was
determined as highest limit for co-pyrolysis temperature for
xed-bed pyrolysis experiments in order to obtain maximum tar
yield.

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M. Kl et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 461467

3.3. Kinetic studies



dx
E
1  x
A exp 
dt
RT

ln(-ln(1-x)/T2)

(a)

The kinetic parameters, activation energy and pre-exponential

factor of biomass and oil shale pyrolysis were determined by the
integral method. Many investigators assumed that solid fuel
pyrolysis is a rst order reaction. So the biomass and oil shale
pyrolysis reaction equation may simply be expressed as the following formula:

Reaction 1

Reaction 3

Reaction 2

where A is pre-exponential factor, E is activation energy, T is temperature, t is time, x is weight loss fraction or pyrolysis conversion
which can be calculated by

W0  Wt
W0  Wf



 ln1  x
T2

ln



AR
2RT
E

1
HE
E
RT

Reaction 1

ln(-ln(1-x)/T2)

where W0 is the original mass of the test sample; Wt is the mass at

time t or T and Wf is nal mass at the end of pyrolysis. For a constant
heating rate H during pyrolysis, H = dT/dt, rearranging Eq. (2) and
integrating give:

ln

(b)

Reaction 2

Since it may be shown that for most values of E and for the temperature range of the pyrolysis, the expression ln[AR/HE(1  2RT/
E)] in Eq. (4) is essentially constant, if the left side of Eq. (4) is plotted versus 1/T, a straight line may be obtained if the process can be
assumed as a rst order reaction. From the slope, E/R, the activation energy E can be determined, and by taking the temperature at
which Wt = (W0 + Wf) /2 in the place of T in the intercept term of Eq.
(4), the pre-exponential factor A can also be determined. Due to the
release of some volatiles by physical processes before a signicant
weight loss rate takes place, differences in the baseline of some
proles were found that make it difcult to determine Ti. To solve
this difculty, the beginning temperature of pyrolysis Ti is dened
as temperature at x = 5%. Similar problems are found for the calculation of TF in some proles. Consequently, TF is calculated at
x = 95% similar to Ti [26,29].
Fig. 3 shows the typical plots of ln[ln(1  x)/T2] versus 1/T,
indicating that E. rigida pyrolysis process have three independent
rst order reactions whereas oil shale pyrolysis process have two
independent rst order reactions. It can be seen clearly form
Fig. 3 that three and two independent rst order reactions should
be used to describe the E. rigida and oil shale pyrolysis processes,
respectively. Moreover, addition of biomass to oil shale yielded
three independent rst order reactions as E. rigida pyrolysis. Therefore, Eq. (2) is applied separately to each of the stages. To do so, the

1/T (K-1)
Fig. 3. Plot of ln(ln(1  x)/T2) vs 1/T of E. rigida, oil shale, and E. rigida-oil shale
blend.

1/T (K-1)

(c)
ln(-ln(1-x)/T2)

1/T (K-1)

Reaction 1
Reaction 3

Reaction 2

1/T (K-1)
Fig. 4. Plots of ln(ln(1  x)/T2) vs 1/T of (a) E. rigida, (b) oil shale, and (c) E. rigidaoil shale blend pyrolysis calculated by one-step integral method.

conversion x was recalculated for each reaction. The results are given in Fig. 4. From the slope of each line, the value of E and A can be
obtained for different stages.
Table 2 shows the calculated value of activation energy and preexponential factor of the E. rigida, oil shale, and their blends. For
E. rigida, three rst order reactions were used to describe the pyrolysis process (Fig. 4), with the activation energy of 84.3 kJ/mol for
the rst stage, 80.6 kJ/mol for the second one, and 74.6 kJ/mol for
the third one, respectively. For oil shale, two rst order reactions
were used to describe the pyrolysis process (Fig. 4), with the
activation energy of 37.6 kJ/mol for the rst stage and 85.8 kJ/
mol for the second one, respectively. The high correlation coefcient indicates that the corresponding independent rst-order
reaction model ts the experimental data very well. Reaction with
high activation energy needs a high temperature or a long reaction
time. For biomass or oil shale, high activation energy means that
the reaction needs more energy from the surroundings. The change
of activation energy shows E. rigida and oil shale have different
pyrolysis reactivities at different temperatures. In co-pyrolysis,
both activation energies and frequency factors of reactions

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M. Kl et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 461467

Table 2
Kinetic parameters, characteristic temperatures and activation energies for pyrolysis of E. rigida, oil shale, and E. rigida-oil shale blend.
Sample

T (C)

Conversion range (%)

R2

A (dk1)

E (kJ/mol)

E. rigida

134194
194335
335503

711
1153
5369

84.3
80.6
74.6

3.24  10
9.88  106
7.26  104

0.9950
0.9903
0.9600

Oil shale

120295
295505

49
954

37.6
85.8

9.81  102
4.02  105

0.9757
0.9930

Blend

124204
204394
394504

912
1230
3062

50.4
57.8
108.9

7.09  104
8.34  104
1.46  105

0.9918
0.9522
0.9486

changed signicantly. All in all co-pyrolysis of E. rigida with oil

shale can be described by three rst order reactions in different
sub temperature intervals of overall process.
3.4. Pyrolysis yields
Fixed bed pyrolysis experiments were conducted from room
temperature to 450500550 C with a heating rate of 10 C min1
in N2 atmosphere (100 cm3 min1) to obtain solid (char) and liquid
(tar) products besides to investigate the synergistic effects of copyrolysis and the results are given in Fig. 5. Due to having very high
ash content (66.50%) the tar yield of oil shale was very low. It is
seen that tar yield of E. rigida is nearly 3 times higher than oil shale.
Maximum oil yields were obtained at 550 C both for E. rigida
and oil shale as 30.5% and 10.72%, respectively. Moreover, char
yields were obtained at 550 C for E. rigida as 16.66% and for oil
shale as 26.87%.
3.5. Char and bio-oil characterization

Fig. 5. Pyrolysis yields of (a) E. rigida, (b) oil shale, and (c) E. rigida-oil shale blend tar.

Table 3 shows FT-IR spectra results for obtained liquid and solid
products. The OAH stretching vibrations between 3200 and
3600 cm1 indicate the presence of phenols and alcohols. The presence of alkanes is indicated by the absorbance peak of CAH vibrations between 3000 and 2800 cm1 and by 14901325 bands due
to the CAH bending. The absorbance peak between 1775 and
1650 cm1 shows the C@O stretching vibration indicating the presence of aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids. The absorbance
peaks between 1680 and 1575 cm1 indicate the presence of alkanes and nitrogenated compounds. The peaks between 1300
and 950 cm1 are due to the presence of primary, secondary and
tertiary alcohols and phenols are showing the CAO stretching
and OAH bending. The presence of single, polycyclic and substituted aromatic groups can be seen from the absorbance peaks between 900 and 650 cm1.
GC/MS analyses were carried out with the pyrolysis tars obtained at optimum temperature. The objective was to get an idea
of the nature and type of compounds of such oils, in order to establish the possible ways of reusing or treating them. Fig. 6 shows the
GC/MS chromatogram of tars. The compounds identied in the tars

Table 3
Functional group composition.
Wave number (cm1)

Functional groups

Compound class

E. rigida

Oil shale

Blend 1:1

36003200
31003010
30002800
17751650
16801575
14901325
1300950

AOH stretching
CAH stretching
CAH stretching
C@O stretching
C@C stretching
CAH bending
CAO stretching

Polymeric AOH, water content

Aromatic ring
Aliphatic
Ketones, aldehydes, carboxylic acids
Alkenes
Alkenes
Alcohols, phenols, esters

+/+
/
+/+
/+
/+
+/
+/+

+/+
/+
/+
/+
/+
/+
+/+

+/+
/
/+
/+
/+
/+
+/+

Char/tar.

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M. Kl et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 461467

have been classied as follows: Straight chain alkanes and alkanes,

monoaromatic compounds, PAHs, phenols, ketones, carboxylic
acids, aldehydes, triterpenoid compounds, and nitrogenated compounds. Fig. 6(a) shows the GC/MS chromatogram of oil shale tar.
The straight chain alkanes and alkanes range between C5 and C20
and distribution of straight chain alkanes exhibit a maximum
range of C8AC16. The GC/MS chromatogram of E. rigida is given in
Fig. 6(b). Comparing with oil shale tar the hydrocarbon distribution
is much lower for E. rigida. Alcohol and acid based chemical compounds are obtained from E. rigida tar. For example; the Ambrettolide, which is a special ketonic compound for E. rigida has been
observed by the pyrolysis. Owing to its musk, sweet oral odor
prole, it is used in the production of deo-stick, detergent perborate, foam bath, shampoo and soap [16]. Fig. 6(c) shows the chromatogram for E. rigida-oil shale blend tar. Although there is not a
signicant synergistic effect, the liquid product is composed of a
mixture of both sample tars.
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to characterize
the changes in the surface of materials. The surface morphology
of raw materials and their chars are given in Fig. 7. Due to high
temperatures during thermal conversion, newly composed pores
lead to increase in the surface area of E. rigida after pyrolysis as a
result of decomposition. This situation is caused because fast volatile release during pyrolysis produces substantial internal overpressure and the coalescence of the small pores. This leads to
large internal cavities and more open structure. SEM macro porosity therefore increased with an increasing temperature. SEM image
of raw oil shale shows that temperature does not have a signicant
effect for opening new pores.

4. Conclusions

Fig. 6. GCMS chromatograms of (a) oil shale, (b) E. rigida, and (c) E. rigida-oil shale
blend tar.

In this study, pyrolysis experiments of oil shale, E. rigida and oil

shale/E. rigida blends were carried out in a thermogravimetric
analyzer (TGA) and a xed-bed reactor in order to investigate the

Fig. 7. SEM images of (a) raw E. rigida, (b) E. rigida char, (c) raw oil shale, and (d) oil shale char.

M. Kl et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 461467

synergistic effects and pyrolysis temperature on product yields and

chemical compositions of the produced tars and chars. Differences
in their physical, chemical, and thermal properties of oil shale and
E. rigida, different pyrolysis behaviors were observed. Pyrolysis of
biomass mostly occurred in a temperature range of 200360 C.
Oil shale pyrolysis started at around 250 C and continued over
the whole range of temperatures studied. Synergistic effects were
not observed in TGA experiments. In the xed-bed reactor experiments different product yields obtained as a result of physical and
chemical properties of the samples. The highest bio yields of both
samples were obtained at 550 C as 30.5% and 10.72% for E. rigida
and oil shale, respectively. The results of the spectroscopic and
chromatographic methods have shown that alcohol and acid based
chemical compounds are obtained from ER tar and straight chain
alkanes and alkanes were obtained from oil shale tar. The blend
tar was composed of a mixture of both sample tars. Adding biomass into oil shale has a positive effect on liquid production.
According to the SEM images of obtained bio-char, E. rigida can also
be evaluated as a candidate for physical and chemical activated
carbon production for wastewater treatments. It can be concluded
that direct thermal conversion of oil shale with biomass is more
important for obtaining valuable liquid products and degradation
of gaseous phase pollution rather than the conversion of oil shale
alone. Moreover, this is also a benecial way to use the shales
which are waste of coal mines obtained by separating them from
coal while mining, with an arid land plant E. rigida which can be
grown easily at the land elds that are not suitable for cultivation
of food and industrial plants.
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