"It has been shown that a mixture of supercritical methanol and water At 400°C, results in recovery of more than 90 percent of organic materials from Green River oil shale as a liquid product with little gas product. A series of experiments with various amounts of water and methanol was performed to investigate the role of methanol In the supercritical extraction process. The purpose of the experiments is to compare the composition of liquid products derived from the process In the presence or absence of methanol . The compositional study involves fractionation of liquid products into acids , bases , and hydrocarbons using ion-exchange resins and ferric chloride-clay chromatography followed by infrared spectrometric and gas chromatographic analyses . The methyl esters formed by supercritical methanol and the organic materials in Green River oil shale are found in the hydrocarbon fraction and can be isolated by alkali hydrolysis . The role of methanol will be discussed . Experiments with model compounds and methanol were also performed for comparison ."