Complete hydrogen production from oil shale with carbon capture†
Abstract
Shale oil involves high refinery costs, making it less attractive than conventional oil. Using shale oil for high-value hydrogen (H2) production may be a solution. However, H2 is currently generated as a passive by-product, or even used as a raw material to produce refined oil, during oil shale processing, and H2 as the target product is not well understood. This study proposed a novel concept of full H2 production from oil shale to boost its competitiveness and clean utilization. The conceptual route of the shale-to-hydrogen process was designed with six components. A model system was established to simulate and analyze the influence of multiple key operating parameters on H2 production, and energy and exergy analyses were conducted. The results show that the proposed shale-to-hydrogen process can produce H2 that is suitable for industrial applications. Meanwhile, a global carbon capture rate of 90.18% is achieved and the exhaust gas is in accordance with the emission standard. Within these specifications, the output of the shale-to-hydrogen process is 303.91 Nm3-H2/t-shale, which meets the standard for industrial hydrogen, and the energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of the whole system are 53.08% and 31.51%, respectively. This study provides a promising technology choice for H2 production and high-value utilization of oil shale.