An Evaluation of the Fire and Explosion Hazards of Oil Shale Mining and Processing

Details

• Personal Author:
  Atwood MT ; Crookston RB ; Williams RE
• Description:
  Oil shales differ from coals in that they contain less carbonaceous material, convertible to volatile hydrocarbons, and more inorganic rock. In all precommercial oil-shale development, involving extensive full-scale mining operations, there have been no explosions. However, large-scale mine tests with oil-shale dusts by the Bureau of Mines showed that propagating explosions could be induced under certain circumstances. Laboratory tests were conducted on a broad spectrum of oil-shale dusts to define chemical properties and to seek correlations with subsequently determined fire and explosion properties. These latter properties, indicative of safety hazards, increased as the fischer assay oil yield of the dusts increased and as particle size decreased. Laboratory data were used to relate fire and explosion properties of oil shales to those of coals and other carbonaceous materials and to assist in the identification and evaluation of potential hazardous situations that may be encountered in oil-shale mining and processing. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Explosions Fires Minerals Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Mining-industry; Mineral-processing; Fire-hazards; Fire-safety; Explosions; Explosion-prevention
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Subseries:
  Open File Report
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Conference Publications ; Final Contract Report
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Colorado ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRC - Pittsburgh Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10000441
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB80-113228
• Citation:
  Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Contract J0275001, 1978 oct; :1-404
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1979
• Performing Organization:
  Tosco Corporation, Los Angeles, California. & University of Denver
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Pittsburgh, PA: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Contract J0275001
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:76d00044cc96a2ce61d735dcb8b98417bf8242d3e678b59d163231a58a8acc826055d5d7e63fa6dbf28b87c8e180f22485628ce0a4d49cf069b14c58da551177
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/234377/cdc_234377_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 13.05 MB ]