Process for devolatilizing devolatilizable fine-grained material by means of hot, fine-grained heat-carrying material

Claim 1

A process for devolatilizing a hydrocarbon-containing fine-grained material selected from the group consisting of tar sand, oil shale, oil-containing diatomaceous earth and coal which comprises: (A) feeding said hydrocarbon-containing fine-grained material having a grain size not in excess of 8 mm, to an agitating chamber having a horizontal or sloped bottom terminating in a discharge chute, said material being fed through a plurality of first feed conduits; (B) introducing heat-carrying fine-grained solids having a temperature of 500° to 1000° C. and a particle size not in excess of 8 mm, to said chamber by a plurality of second feed conduits, said first and second feed conduits being arranged to form superimposed layers of said material and said solids so as to contact and to mix said solids and hydrocarbon-containing fine-grained material, thereby heating the material to temperatures of about 400° to 900° C. and devolatilizing the material; (C) withdrawing hydrocarbon gases and vapors from said chamber; (D) introducing a portion of said gases as sole agitating gas into the mixture of heat-carrying solids and hydrocarbon-containing material through a plurality of nozzles at different valocities, the velocity of the agitating gas introduced in a first zone adjacent to the first and second feed conduits being higher than the velocity of the gas in a succeeding second zone in the direction toward said discharge chute, the velocity of agitating gas in a third zone next preceding said discharge chute being higher than in the second zone, the velocities of the agitating gas leaving the nozzles being in the range between 10 and 60 meters per second; (E) moving the mixture of solids in an agitated state, agitated by said agitating gas, towards said discharge chute such that the height of said solids in the agitating chamber is from 0.1 to 1.0 meter; and (F) feeding the mixture from said discharge chute into a dwell zone, with gases and vapors being withdrawn from said dwell zone.