PROCESS OF RECOVERING OIL FROM OIL-CONTAINING MINERALS

Oil-containing materials and part of the hot burnt material which is available after the combustion of solid carbon are charged into a retorting shaft reactor and the oil-containing mineral in the mixture is heated to the retorting temperature. For a processing even of minerals consisting of coarse lumps at high throughput rates and with a high oil yield, part of the retorting is effected in the retorting shaft reactor, the mineral from the retorting reactor is charged onto a traveling grate, the remaining retorting is effected in an after-retorting zone, in which inert or reducing gases are passed through the material, the gases from the retorting reactor and from the after-retorting zone are supplied to the separating stage and oil is removed from said gases in the separating stage, the retorted material is moved on the traveling grate to a combustion zone, the solid carbon in the surface of the bed is ignited at the beginning of the combustion zone, oxygen-containing gases are then sucked through the bed to cause the burning zone to move through the bed, the rate at which said oxygen-containing gases are sucked through the bed is preferably so controlled that the bed is heated to the highest possible temperature by the combustion of solid carbon, the burnt mineral is discharged from the traveling grate and part of the burnt material is recycled to the retorting reactor.