Symposium on Geochemistry and Chemistry O F Oil Shale Presented before the Divisions of Fuel Chemistry, Geochemistry

Recent resource assessment studies of eastern Kentucky oil shales have establlshed that this resource is a potential economic synthetic fuel feedstock (1). Extensive geochemical characterization of this resource has been carr ied out by the Institute for Mining and Mlnerals Research (University of Kentucky) with support f rom the Commonwealth of Kentucky Energy Cabinet, the U. S. Department of Energy and private industry. This effort will eventually culminate in the characterization of the entire oil shale resource within the Commonwealth; this particular study addresses the results gained from the f i r s t two drilling and sampling phases of the overall effort. The sampling and analysis program was initiated in Lewis and Fleming Counties, Kentucky, resulting in 10 cores being drilled with those co re samples being designated as the "K-series" samples in this report. The second phase of the program produced an 11 additional cores in Rowan, Bath, Montgomery, Powell and Estill Counties; these samples a r e given the "D-series" designation. The location of these core s i tes as well as current drilling sites are depicted in Figure 1. This paper summarizes the geochemistry of the Devonian and Mississippian age oil shales of the Kand Dser ies study areas .