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Upgrading of Oil Shale by Flotation Without Collector

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Abstract

Oil shale impurities prevent its direct usage as a source of energy. Removing or reducing of these impurities before retorting can reduce the cost of oil shale processing. In that regard, pretreatment of oil shale by flotation represents one of the favorable solutions. Therefore, in this work, (a) microscopic examinations were carried out to study the mineralogical characteristics of oil shale sample and (b) flotation of oil shale was used to separate organic matter (kerogen) from associating gangue by adjusting the flotation pH, stirring speed and pulp density without adding a collector. The results of oil shale characterization showed that kerogen content in the studied sample was 10%, while the results of flotation experiments proved the possibility of oil shale upgrading to about 20% kerogen with recovery reaching to more than 70%.

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Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to the General Administration of Scientific Research—Cairo University for funding the project entitled “Maximum utilization of oil shale deposits of Egypt”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mining, Petroleum, and Metallurgy Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    S. E. El-Mofty, N. Khairy & A. A. El-Midany

  2. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

    A. M. El-Kammar

Authors
  1. S. E. El-Mofty
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  2. N. Khairy
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  3. A. M. El-Kammar
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  4. A. A. El-Midany
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Correspondence to S. E. El-Mofty.

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El-Mofty, S.E., Khairy, N., El-Kammar, A.M. et al. Upgrading of Oil Shale by Flotation Without Collector. Nat Resour Res 28, 91–97 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-018-9376-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-018-9376-5

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