SALLC Demonstrates Dragon Shale Separation Process

Ron Stites, Founder of Stites & Associates (SALLC) and co-Founder of Dragon Shale, LLC, along with colleagues O.J. Schneider (also a co-Founder of Dragon Shale) and Kora Stanley (Engineering Technician of Dragon Shale) successfully demonstrated the basic technology used in separating Kerogen Oil into higher-value fractions. This was done at a bench scale but appears to be easily scalable to commercial size. The details of the technique remain proprietary, but the demonstration is a fundamental breakthrough in the oil shale industry. The Kerogen Oil from oil shale is a poor feedstock for fuels, but it is loaded with high-value petrochemicals. Hence, this breakthrough method has the potential to make Kerogen Oil much more valuable than many crude oils.

Mr. Stites continues to spend most of his time in Vernal, Utah, supporting the USTAR TAP Project for Dragon Shale. The Project is designed to validate the oil shale technologies co-developed by SALLC. Called the Dragon Shale Process, the technologies use a unique retorting method directly coupled to separation processes to create high-value petrochemicals from oil shale. This is a big departure from the traditional (and so far, completely unsuccessful) processes to try to make commodity fuels from oil shale.

The benefits of the new technologies include:

1. Dramatic reduction in CO₂ footprint by creating chemicals and building materials rather than fuels,
2. A closed system allowing capture of all environmentally troublesome compounds,
3. Creating product values in excess of crude oil prices instead of being at below typical crude oil prices,
4. Allowing small plants and mines to be economically viable rather than huge strip-mining operations,
5. Eliminates the need for huge amounts of water to make the hydrogen needed to turn the kerogen oil into a useful crude oil for making fuels and
6. Allows small plants to be sited on only the best, most available oil shale resources.

Mr. Stites uses the SALLC R&D Laboratory equipment that has been moved to Vernal, UT, to test and improve the retorting and separation technologies co-developed by SALLC.

Ron can be reached at his usual email, [email protected] or a his Dragon Shale email, [email protected] .