A naphthenic jet fuel produced from an Australian marine oil shale

CSR Limited holds title to an Authority to Prospect covering the Cretaceous Julia Creek oil shale deposit, located in Queensland, Australia, approximately 600 km inland from the eastern seaboard. The shale is of marine origin, having been deposited as an anaerobic sediment in a restricted epicontinental sea. Algae are the predominant source of organic matter. Resources are estimated at 20 billion barrels of oil, approximately half in shale deposits suitable for open cut mining. Typical oil shale analyses are given. Average oil yields are 70 liters per ton. The oil has several deleterious characteristics which necessitate its upgrading at higher severity than is conventional at existing refineries. Heteroatom levels are in total significantly higher than values for petroleum crudes and the aromaticity and metal content of the oil add to its complexity and unusual nature. Two processing routes have been proposed for this oil - either the production of a syncrude by hydrostabilization of the whole oil, or alternatively, upgrading separate fractions to marketable fuels. Pilot plant studies were carried out to simulate refinery processes options. During these investigations, they were successful in the first Australian production of shale-derived jet and diesel synfuels which met all specifications. In this paper, they present details of the jet fuel production and describe its unusual naphthenic character.