Fushun oil shale (FOS) was subjected to thermal dissolution (TD) under different conditions. The results show that the optimal solvent

temperature

time

and ratio of solvent to FOS are ethanol

300℃

2 h

and 5 ml·g

-1

respectively and the corresponding yield of the soluble portion (SP) is 32.2% (daf)

which is much higher than the oil content of FOS (ca. 6%)

suggesting that TD in ethanol is an excellent way to extract organics from FOS. According to 3 direct analyses

aliphatic moieties in FOS are the most abundant followed by C-O-containing moieties and each cluster in FOS has 3 conjugated aromatic rings on average with fewer substituents. According to the analysis with a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer

alkanes are predominant in all the SPs. A number of alkenes were identified in the SPs from the TD

while none of the alkenes were detected in acetone-SP obtained at room temperature

implying that the TD can destroy the π-π and intertwining interactions between alkenes and macromolecular structures in FOS. Moreover

a small amount of alkyl-substituted phenols and alkoxysubstituted phenols were detected in ethanol-SP from the TD

which could be t

he products from ethanolyzing the macromolecular moiety of FOS.