The Pumpherston retort (also known as the Bryson retort) was a type of oil-shale retort used in Britain at the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century. It marked separation of the oil-shale industry from the

coal industry Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

as it was designed specifically for oil-shale retorting. The retort is named after

Pumpherston Pumpherston is a village in West Lothian, Scotland. Originally a small industrial village housing works for the nearby shale mine and works, it now forms the eastern part of the new town of Livingston, which was constructed to the west of Pumph ...

West Lothian West Lothian (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, bordering (in a clockwise direction) the City of Edinburgh council area, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and Falkirk (council area), Falkirk. The modern counci ...

, which was one of the major oil shale areas in Great Britain. The retort was commercialized by Pumpherston Oil Company.

History

The Pumpherston retort was invented and patented in 1894 by William Fraser, James Bryson, and James Jones of Pumpherston Oil Company. By 1910, 1,528 Pumpherston retorts were used in Scotland. In addition, the retort was used in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The Pumpherson design was used at

Newnes Newnes (), an abandoned oil shale mining site of the Wolgan Valley, is located in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The site that was operational in the early 20th century is now partly surrounded by Wollemi Nation ...

and Torbane, in Australia, by

Commonwealth Oil Corporation Commonwealth Oil Corporation Limited was a British-owned Australian company associated with the production and refining of petroleum products derived from oil shale, during the early years of the 20th century. It is associated with Newnes, Hartley ...

. The retorts at Newnes were later modified, by adding more off-takes, to make it better suited to oil-rich shale, by John Fell. The resulting design variant was patented by Fell, and was referred to as a 'modified Pumpherson' or 'Fell' retort. That modified design was also used at Glen Davis.

Design

The Pumpherston retort was a high cylindrical vessel containing two main sections. The upper section was made of iron and the lower section was made of fire bricks. The raw oil shale was fed on the top of retort.

Shale oil Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...

and

oil shale gas Oil shale gas (also: retort gas or retorting gas) is a synthetic non-condensable gas mixture (syngas) produced by oil shale thermal processing (pyrolysis). Although often referred to as shale gas, it differs from the natural gas produced from shal ...

were distilled at the upper section at the temperature of . At the lower section, the heat rose to and steam was added to produce

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

. The process required approximately of water equivalent of steam per one ton of oil shale. The retort had a 15 ton capacity, and the residence time was 24 hours. It was started up by combustion of coal, but after the process started it was switched to the produced oil shale gas.

References

{{Reflist Oil shale technology Energy in Scotland Industrial history of Scotland 1894 introductions 1894 establishments in Scotland History of West Lothian Economy of West Lothian