The result of quantitative determination of selected non-hydrocarbon elements present in shale oils produced by pyrolysis of oil shales from El-Lajjun, Attarat Umm Ghudran, Al-Wehda dam and Al-Sultani deposits is presented. Fischer Assay analysis of oil shales indicated their water content to range from 2.4 to 2.9 wt%, liquid shale oil amount to vary between 5.44 and 15 wt%, spent shale to be in the range 78–90.93 wt% and gaseous loss from 1.03 to 4.0 wt%. Distillation of shale oils showed comparable volume percent distilled with temperature. Seventeen non-hydrocarbon elements were quantified using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The detected elements were: arsenic (As), barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), boron (B), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), selenium (Se), strontium (Sr), tin (Sn), vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn). The concentrations of these elements depended on oil shale deposit location. The elements concentration ranges determined were the following: As 2.11–2.59 ppm, B 0.57–0.58 ppm, Cd 5.00–6.13 ppm, Cr 1.78–2.47 ppm, Ni 8.91–11.10 ppm, V 2.29–0.887 ppm, antimony (Sb) 1.43–1.52 ppm, molybdenum (Mo) 0.42–0.78 ppm, Zn 10.5–12.93 ppm, Se 1.79–1.91 ppm and Sr 0.78–0.94 ppm.
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