CHARACTERIZATION OF OIL SHALE FROM THE BIDA BASIN, USING TGA, TOC AND ROCK EVAL PYROLYSIS

Abstract

The earth contains large amounts of hydrocarbons that are not contained in what might be called conventional hydrocarbons. With increasing demand for energy both domestically and industrially, a major challenge facing the world, the society is driven to search for alternative energy sources. In this work, oil shale samples were collected from the Bida formation of the Bida Basin, Niger state, Nigeria. Analytical tools such as Rock Eval Pyrolysis, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Thermographic Analysis (TGA) were used to characterize the sample. From the Pyrolysis results, the Hydrogen Index (HI) was 45.71 mgHC/gTOC, the Production Index (PI), 0.42 and the Tmax, 342 OC. The TOC was 1.40 wt%. From the TGA results, the activation energy of the oil shale was calculated using the Arrhenius equation and found to be 48.40 KJ/Mol, while the pre-exponential factor was 884.025 min-1. Consequently, the oil shale is gas-prone and contains migratory hydrocarbons. Also, the content of organic matter in the sample is good.