Patent ID: 7807049

Claim:
A method of extracting kerogen oil from oil shale while reducing adverse environmental impacts, comprising: feeding a fuel through a first plasma reactor to create a syngas; removing carbon dioxide from the syngas; capturing the syngas from the first plasma reactor; directing the syngas to a heat exchanger which transfers heat from the syngas to recirculating gases of a vertical kiln that are separate from the syngas to thereby heat oil shale in the vertical kiln; circulating the recirculating gases through the heat exchanger to continually heat the oil shale in the vertical kiln; directing the syngas from the heat exchanger to a turbine to produce electricity; feeding oil shale through the vertical kiln to release hydrocarbons from the oil shale to create spent shale; capturing the hydrocarbons from the vertical kiln; processing the hydrocarbons to produce at least one usable fuel; feeding the spent shale through a second plasma reactor to vitrify the spent shale, the second plasma reactor being powered at least in part by electricity produced by the turbine; and capturing substantially all of the carbon dioxide present in the second plasma reactor to prevent the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.