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How does the Petrosix process heat oil shale?
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oil shale
Kuskerite (oil shale) outcrop that dates to the Ordovician Period, northern Estonia.
The Petrosix process, developed by the Brazilian national oil company Petrobras, utilizes an aboveground retort to extract oil from shale.12
It is categorized as an externally generated hot gas method. In this process, heat is applied to the oil shale by injecting a remotely heated gas directly into the retort zone. This heating facilitates the pyrolysis of the rock, breaking the chemical bonds of the kerogen macromolecules to liberate liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.1