UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 239 
ite conclusions regarding the effect of such water upon 
the quality of the oil recovered. It seems probable, 
however, that the use of water containing large amounts 
of sulphur, nitrogenous and other compounds, such as 
is recovered when oil-shale is distilled, will have a 
detrimental effect upon the oil produced. The use of 
such water will increase the concentration of these com- 
pounds within the retort and probably accelerate the 
formation of undesirable sulphur and nitrogenous oil- 
compounds. As the water is re-used the concentration 
of these compounds in the water will increase. 
Fresh water, in the form of steam; introduced into 
the retort may (in addition to other effects) hinder the 
formation of some of the undersirable oil compounds by 
decreasing, by dilution, the concentration of the deleter- 
ious sulphur and nitrogenous compounds in a unit vol- 
ume. Besides the effect of steam, upon the sulphur 
content of the recovered oil; a decided difference is 
noticed in the composition of the uncondensible gases 
recovered. During the retorting process, considerable 
quantities of hydrogen sulphide and other sulphur com- 
pounds are formed and the percentage of these undesir- 
able sulphur compounds in the gas and oil can be greatly 
decreased by the use of excessive quantities of steam. Dur- 
ing dry destructive distillation, the gas recovered contains 
many times the sulphur content than gas recovered during 
the distillation when using steam. Many of the sulphur 
compounds are soluble in the water. 
As stated previously, the ammonia recovery, up to 
a certain percentage, can be increased by the use of 
steam, but the actual chemical effect of the steam upon 
the nitrogenous compounds in the shale cannot be stated 
at this time. In the Scotch plants the waste waters from 
the retorting process are not usually re-used but are 
allowed to trickle over the spent shale dumps, and then 
waste. 
