Gaseous ferrocene as an efficient catalyst for in-situ pyrolysis of oil shale

The cost-efficient exploitation of low- to moderate maturity (LMM) shale is of great significance in ensuring energy security, yet the existing technologies suffer from low pyrolysis efficiency, high energy consumption, and poor quality of product oil and gas. For the first time, this study proposes a novel strategy using gaseous ferrocene as an efficient catalyst for the in-situ catalytic pyrolysis of such shale, leveraging its unique low-temperature sublimation property for uniform dispersion in shale microfractures. Systematic pyrolysis experiments demonstrated that the addition of ferrocene effectively enhanced both the yield and quality of product oil and gas. Under conditions of 0.5 % ferrocene addition and an initial reaction pressure of 2 and 0.5 MPa, the product oil recovery rate increased by 31.67 % and 106.16 %, respectively, as compared with the non-catalytic pyrolysis. The yield of H 2 and light hydrocarbons (CH 4 , C 2 -C 4 ) in the gas products increased significantly, while the proportion of gasoline fraction in product oil rose markedly, with a substantial reduction in heavy oil components. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrated that ferrocene reduces the energy barrier of C–C bonds and C–O bonds cleavage, supporting the experimental results of enhanced pyrolysis of kerogen.