Technology of extraction of useful components from shales of the Aktau deposit

This paper describes technologies for processing of oil shales and determines parameters of thermal decomposition without oxygen access (pyrolysis) and hydrometallurgical methods for extracting useful components. The following methods are presented: leaching to extract valuable components into a sulfuric acid solution, and selective extraction to ion-exchange resins by sorption of valuable components of vanadium and molybdenum. The presented methods are not implemented on an industrial scale, since there is no oil shale processing in the Republic. Perspective technological schemes of oil shale ash processing are analyzed. The process involves the addition of sodium chloride to the process of thermal decomposition without access to oxygen (pyrolysis). The resulting ash is leached in vats with sulfuric acid 160 g/l, at room temperature, T : W = 1 : 5, duration 60 minutes. The resulting metal-bearing sulfuric acid solution is filtered and sent to sorption and precipitation. Extraction of vanadium and molybdenum into solution is more than 60-70 %. It should be noted that with an increase in the consumption of sulfuric acid over 160 g/l, the concentration of metals in the productive solution does not increase. The ion-exchange resins of the English company PUROLITE were used to extract metals from the productive solutions of leaching of oil shale ash from the Aktau deposit: for the extraction of molybdenum - A-100 Mo grade, and vanadium - A-109 grade.