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<br />. <br /> <br />OJ1126 <br /> <br />Draft - 9/81 <br /> <br />Appendix VI <br />Details of Water Consumption by Oil Shale Retorting <br /> <br />Water. Consumption Characteristics: Background <br />In several ways, the description given in the oil shale <br />section of Chapter 5 of the product produced by retorting oil <br />shale is not entirely satisfactory. Hydrocarbon gases are also <br />produced in varying amounts during retorting, and whatever por- <br />tion of these is not used as plant fuel represents a salable pro- <br />duct of the oil shale facility. If these gases were taken into <br />account, researchers could speak in terms of water consumption <br />per net Btu output of the plant, rather than water consumption. <br />per barrel of synthetic crude oil or pumpable shale oil. Unfor- <br />tunately, most of the literature reviewed does not address the <br />issue of gaseous byproducts, leaving unresolved the question of <br />what the total Btu value of a facility's net hydrocarbon produc- <br />tion might be. Thus, this report deals with barrels per day of <br />shale oil rather than total Btu production. <br />Additionally, the definition of the unit-sized plant would <br />lead one to suppose that the amount of water consumed is a func- <br />tion of the amount of the product produced. This is only partly <br />true. The amount of water consumed by processes utilizing sur- <br />face retorts is largely a function of how much spent shale must <br />be disposed of, as discussed later in this Appendix. The kerogen <br />content of the feed shale therefore becomes an important factor <br />in determining total water consumption. For example, a plant <br />