Shale Tech International Services offers a suite of laboratory analyses tailored to oil shale research and is committed to furthering the research and development of the oil shale industry. With over 150 years of combined experience in oil shale research, we are here to help. No one understands better how important timely and accurate information is to the decision making process. With our experience and proven line of analytical equipment, you can be sure to receive timely and accurate data when you need it.
Per ASTM D 3904-90 – Standard Test Method for Oil From Oil Shale (Resource evaluation by the Fisher Assay Procedure). This procedure is commonly called the Modified Fisher Assay, or MFA, and is the standard by which shale resources are evaluated.
An oil shale sample is crushed and heated to 500°C in 40 minutes and then held at temperature for 40 minutes. The evolved oil vapor and water are condensed in a cooled graduated centrifuge tube. The oil yields achieved by Paraho II™ and other technologies are often reported as a percentage of the Fischer Assay oil yield.
When evaluating your resource you need look no further than STIS’ EPECO 12-oven MFA Bench. Our experienced staff has performed thousands of tests utilizing industry standard ASTM D3904-90.
At STIS we use the Perkin Elmer TGA 4000 to conduct our TGA.
The American Petroleum Institute gravity, or API gravity, is a measure of how heavy or light a petroleum liquid is compared to water. STIS uses the Anton Paar DMA 4500 to measure the API gravity of both product oil and Modified Fischer Assay (MFA) oil at 15°C. The API gravity often varies for different shale blends; therefore, it is important to know the API gravity of the product oil to calculate yields, as well as to ascertain the correct gallons per ton (GPT) oil during the MFA.