Jump to content

Oil shale industry: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
Next edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Start -copy from orginal article
 
copy paste
Line 17: Line 17:


The '''United States''' has seen some attempts at large-scale exploitation. Oil distilled from shale was first burnt for [[horticulture|horticultural purposes]] in the 19th century, but it was not until the 1900s that larger investigations were made. The [[Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves]] was established in 1912. The reserves were seen as a possible emergency source of fuel for the military, particularly the [[United States Navy|Navy]]. After [[World War II]], the [[United States Bureau of Mines|US Bureau of Mines]] opened a demonstration mine at Anvils Point, just west of [[Rifle, Colorado]], which operated at a small-scale. In the early sixties [[Tosco Corporation|TOSCO (The Oil Shale Corporation)]] opened an underground mine and built an experimental plant near [[Parachute, Colorado]]. It closed in the late sixties because the price of production exceeded the cost of imported crude oil. It was not until the [[oil crisis]] of the 1970s and the US becoming a net importer of oil that efforts at utilization were increased. Military uses were deemed less important and commercial exploitation came to the fore, with several oil companies investing. [[Unocal]] returned to the same area where TOSCO had worked. Several billion dollars were spent until declining [[oil prices]] rendered production uneconomical once more and [[Unocal]] withdrew in 1991. The oil shale development program was initiated in 2003 in support of President Bush’s National Energy Policy.<ref name=blm>{{cite web | publisher= Bureau of Land Management | url= http://www.blm.gov/nhp/news/releases/pages/2005/pr050920_oilshale.htm | title = Nominations for Oil Shale Research Leases Demonstrate Significant Interest in Advancing Energy Technology. Press release | date = 2005-09-20 | accessdate=2007-07-10}}</ref> The [[Energy Policy Act of 2005]] introduced a commercial leasing program for oil shale and tar sands resources on public lands with an emphasis on the most geologically prospective lands within each of the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.<ref name=anl>{{cite web | publisher= Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing Programmatic EIS Information Center | url= http://ostseis.anl.gov/eis/what/index.cfm | title = What's in the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing Programmatic EIS | accessdate=2007-07-10}}</ref> The federal government currently owns 72% of all known oil shale in the United States.
The '''United States''' has seen some attempts at large-scale exploitation. Oil distilled from shale was first burnt for [[horticulture|horticultural purposes]] in the 19th century, but it was not until the 1900s that larger investigations were made. The [[Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves]] was established in 1912. The reserves were seen as a possible emergency source of fuel for the military, particularly the [[United States Navy|Navy]]. After [[World War II]], the [[United States Bureau of Mines|US Bureau of Mines]] opened a demonstration mine at Anvils Point, just west of [[Rifle, Colorado]], which operated at a small-scale. In the early sixties [[Tosco Corporation|TOSCO (The Oil Shale Corporation)]] opened an underground mine and built an experimental plant near [[Parachute, Colorado]]. It closed in the late sixties because the price of production exceeded the cost of imported crude oil. It was not until the [[oil crisis]] of the 1970s and the US becoming a net importer of oil that efforts at utilization were increased. Military uses were deemed less important and commercial exploitation came to the fore, with several oil companies investing. [[Unocal]] returned to the same area where TOSCO had worked. Several billion dollars were spent until declining [[oil prices]] rendered production uneconomical once more and [[Unocal]] withdrew in 1991. The oil shale development program was initiated in 2003 in support of President Bush’s National Energy Policy.<ref name=blm>{{cite web | publisher= Bureau of Land Management | url= http://www.blm.gov/nhp/news/releases/pages/2005/pr050920_oilshale.htm | title = Nominations for Oil Shale Research Leases Demonstrate Significant Interest in Advancing Energy Technology. Press release | date = 2005-09-20 | accessdate=2007-07-10}}</ref> The [[Energy Policy Act of 2005]] introduced a commercial leasing program for oil shale and tar sands resources on public lands with an emphasis on the most geologically prospective lands within each of the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.<ref name=anl>{{cite web | publisher= Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing Programmatic EIS Information Center | url= http://ostseis.anl.gov/eis/what/index.cfm | title = What's in the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing Programmatic EIS | accessdate=2007-07-10}}</ref> The federal government currently owns 72% of all known oil shale in the United States.

===Mining===
The oil shale is mined either by traditional [[sub-surface mining|underground mining]] or [[surface mining]] techniques. There are several mining methods, but the aim of all of them is the fragmenting of oil shale deposit to enable the transport of shale fragments to a power plant or retorting facility. Main methods of surface mining are [[open pit mining]] and [[strip mining]]. The main sub-surface mining method is the room-and-pillar method.<ref name=rand>{{Citation | last = Bartis | first = James T. | last2 =LaTourrette | first2 = Tom | last3 = Dixon | first3 =Lloyd | last4 = Peterson | first4 =D.J. | last5 = Cecchine | first5 = Gary | title = Oil Shale Development in the United States. Prospects and Policy Issues. Prepared for the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy | publisher = [[RAND|The RAND Corporation]] | date = 2005 | pages = | url = http://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analyses/pubs/Oil%20Shale%20Development%20in%20the%20United%20States%20-%20RAND%20August%20200.pdf | id = ISBN 978-0-8330-3848-7 | accessdate =2007-06-29}}</ref>

===Power generation===
Oil shale could be used as a fuel for thermal power plants, where the shale is burned like coal to drive steam turbines. Currently there are oil shale-fired power plants in Estonia (2967 MW installed capacities), Israel (12.5 MW), Germany (9.9 MW), and China.<ref name=symposium>{{Citation | last = Brendow | first = K. | title = Global oil shale issues and perspectives. Synthesis of the Symposium on Oil Shale | date = 18-19 November 2002 | place = Tallinn, Estonia | publisher =World Energy Council | url = http://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/global/downloads/estonia2002.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate = 2007-06-16}}</ref><ref name=china>{{Citation | last =Qian | first =J. | last2 =Wang | first2 =J. | last3 =Li | first3 =S. | title =Oil Shale Development in China | journal =Oil Shale. A Scientific-Technical Journal | publisher = Estonian Academy Publishers | volume =20 | issue =3 | pages =356-359 | year =2003 | url=http://www.kirj.ee/oilshale/9_qian_2003_3s.pdf | format = PDF | id = ISSN 0208-189X | accessdate =2007-06-16}}</ref> While some countries have closed their oil shale-fired power plants (e.g. Romania) or converted to other fuels (e.g. Russia), some other countries are looking for construction of these power plants (e.g. Jordan and Egypt), or burn oil shale at the power plants together with coal (e.g. Canada and Turkey).<ref name=wec/><ref name=symposium/><ref name=Jordan>{{Citation | last =Hamarneh | first =Yousef | authorlink = Yousef Hamarneh | coauthors =Jamal Alali; Suzan Sawaged | title =Oil Shale Resources Development In Jordan | location=Amman | publisher =Natural Resources Authority of Jordan | year = 1998; 2006 | url =http://www.nra.gov.jo/oilshale/Updated%20Hamarneh%20Report%202006.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate =2007-06-16}}</ref>

There are three technologies for combustion:<ref name=jordan2>{{Citation | last = Alali | first = Jamal | last2 = Abu Salah | first2 = Abdelfattah | last3 = Yasin | first3 = Suha M. | last4 = Al Omari | first4 = Wasfi | title = Oil Shale in Jordan| publisher = Natural Resources Authority of Jordan | year =2006 | url = http://www.nra.gov.jo/minerals/Oil%20Shale.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate =2007-06-29}}</ref>
* Pulverized Combustion (PC) - used in the older units of oil shale-fired power plants in Estonia
* Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC) - used by Rohrbach Zement in Dotternhausen, Germany
* Circulated Fluidized Bed (CFB) - used in two new units at Narva Power Plants in Estonia, [[Huadian]] Power Plant in China, and PAMA power plant at Mishor Rotem in Israel.

The most modern technology of a combustion of oil shale in power plants is a [[Fluidized bed combustion|bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) or circulating fluidized bed (CFB) process]], while the traditional way of burning oil shale is through pulverized combustion.<ref name=oilshale1>{{Citation | last =Liblik | first =V. | last2 =Kaasik | first2 =M. | last3 =Pensa | first3 =M. | last4 =Rätsep | first4 =A. | last5 =Rull | first5 =E. | last6 =Tordik | first6 =A. | title =Reduction of sulphur dioxide emissions and transboundary effects of oil shale based energy production | journal =Oil Shale. A Scientific-Technical Journal | publisher = Estonian Academy Publishers | volume =23 | issue =1 | pages =29-38 | year =2006 | url=http://www.kirj.ee/oilshale/9_qian_2003_3s.pdf | format = PDF | id = ISSN 0208-189X | accessdate =2007-06-16}}</ref><ref name=symposium/>

===Oil extraction===
At present, the major shale oil producers are Estonia, Brazil and China, while some other countries as Australia, USA, Canada and Jordan have planned to start or restart shale oil production.<ref name=symposium/><ref name=Jordan/> Although there are several oil shale retorting technologies, only five technologies are currently in commercial use, which are Kiviter, Galoter, Fushun, Petrosix, and Alberta Taciuk.<ref name=qian>{{Citation | last = Qian | first = Jialin | last2 = Wang | first2 = Jianqiu | title = World oil shale retorting technologies| date = 7-9 November 2006 | place = Amman, Jordan | url = http://www.sdnp.jo/International_Oil_Conference/rtos-A104.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate = 2007-06-29}}</ref>

The two main methods of extracting oil from shale are ''ex-situ'' and ''in-situ''.

Revision as of 07:38, 19 July 2007

Industry

Currently oil shale is used industrially in Brazil, China, Estonia and to some extent in Germany, Israel and Russia, while several other countries research their reserves, have experimental production or have phase-out their oil shale industry.[1] Estonia accounts for about 70% of the world's oil shale production.[2]

History of usage

File:Production of oil shale.PNG
Production of oil shale in millions of metric tons from Estonia (Estonia deposit), Russia (Leningrad and Kashpir deposits), United Kingdom (Scotland, Lothians), Brazil (Iratí Formation), China (Maoming and Fushun deposits), and Germany (Dotternhausen) from 1880 to 2000.[3]

Oil shale has been used since ancient times. In 1637, Swedish alum shale of Cambrian and Ordovician age was used for extracting potassium aluminium sulphate.[1] The modern use of oil shale for shale oil production dates to the mid-19th century. In 1837 oil shale mining began at the Autun mines in France, and continued until 1957.[4] In 1847 the Scottish chemist James Young prepared "lighting oil," lubricating oil and wax from torbanite. In 1850 he patented the process of cracking oil.[5] Oil from oil shale was produced in Scotland from 1857 until 1962 when production ceased due to the lower cost of petroleum.

Germany developed its shale oil industry from mid-19th century until the 1940s. Today, only Rohrbach Zement in Dotternhausen uses oil shale for cement, and power and thermal energy production. Sweden retorted oil from shale from the end of the 19th century until 1966. In addition, in 1950-1989 alum shale was used in Sweden for uranium production and in the 1960s a small amount of vanadium was produced.[3][1]

Estonia first used oil shale as a low-grade fuel in 1838 after attempts to distill oil from the material failed. Estonia's resource was not seriously exploited until fuel shortages during World War I made it viable. Mining began in 1918 and has continued since, with the size of operation increasing with demand. After World War II, Estonian-produced oil shale gas was used in Leningrad and the cities in North Estonia as a substitute for natural gas. Two large oil shale-fired power stations were opened, a 1,400-MW plant in 1965 and a 1,600-MW plant in 1973. Oil shale production peaked in 1980 at 31.35 million tonnes. However, in 1981 the fourth reactor of the Sosnovy Bor nuclear power station opened nearby in Leningrad Oblast of Russia, reducing demand for Estonian shale. Production gradually decreased until 1995, since which time production has increased again slightly.

Australia mined 4 million tonnes of oil shale between 1862 and 1952, when government support of mining ceased. Since the 1970s, oil companies have been exploring possible reserves. From 2000 to 2004 a demonstration-scale processing plant at the Stuart Deposit near Gladstone, Queensland produced over 1.5 million barrels of oil. The facility is now on care-and-maintenance in an operable condition, and the operator of the plant — Queensland Energy Resources — is conducting research and design studies for the next phase of its oil shale operations.[6]

Brazil has produced oil from oil shales since 1935. Since 1954 Oil shale development has been the focus of a specific department with in Petrobras named, Superintendencia da Industrializaco do Xisto (SIX). Initially SIX focused on oil shales in the larger Paraíba formation but has now since since refocued development in the Irati shale. The pilot plant with a prototype oil-shale retort was started in 1972 before using Petrosix technology in 1982 and the commercial production started in 1992. The retort is able to produce approximatley 3,800 b/d and has to dat e produced more than 10.4 Million barrels of shale oil.

China has been mining oil shale since the 1920s near Fushun and Maoming. Russia has been mining its reserves since the 1930s. As most of Russian oil shale mines were closed on 1990s, the current production continues on a small-scale basis. Canada has produced some shale oil in mid of 1800s and in 1929-1930. Some experimental processing took place also in 1988.[1]

The United States has seen some attempts at large-scale exploitation. Oil distilled from shale was first burnt for horticultural purposes in the 19th century, but it was not until the 1900s that larger investigations were made. The Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves was established in 1912. The reserves were seen as a possible emergency source of fuel for the military, particularly the Navy. After World War II, the US Bureau of Mines opened a demonstration mine at Anvils Point, just west of Rifle, Colorado, which operated at a small-scale. In the early sixties TOSCO (The Oil Shale Corporation) opened an underground mine and built an experimental plant near Parachute, Colorado. It closed in the late sixties because the price of production exceeded the cost of imported crude oil. It was not until the oil crisis of the 1970s and the US becoming a net importer of oil that efforts at utilization were increased. Military uses were deemed less important and commercial exploitation came to the fore, with several oil companies investing. Unocal returned to the same area where TOSCO had worked. Several billion dollars were spent until declining oil prices rendered production uneconomical once more and Unocal withdrew in 1991. The oil shale development program was initiated in 2003 in support of President Bush’s National Energy Policy.[7] The Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced a commercial leasing program for oil shale and tar sands resources on public lands with an emphasis on the most geologically prospective lands within each of the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.[8] The federal government currently owns 72% of all known oil shale in the United States.

Mining

The oil shale is mined either by traditional underground mining or surface mining techniques. There are several mining methods, but the aim of all of them is the fragmenting of oil shale deposit to enable the transport of shale fragments to a power plant or retorting facility. Main methods of surface mining are open pit mining and strip mining. The main sub-surface mining method is the room-and-pillar method.[9]

Power generation

Oil shale could be used as a fuel for thermal power plants, where the shale is burned like coal to drive steam turbines. Currently there are oil shale-fired power plants in Estonia (2967 MW installed capacities), Israel (12.5 MW), Germany (9.9 MW), and China.[10][11] While some countries have closed their oil shale-fired power plants (e.g. Romania) or converted to other fuels (e.g. Russia), some other countries are looking for construction of these power plants (e.g. Jordan and Egypt), or burn oil shale at the power plants together with coal (e.g. Canada and Turkey).[1][10][12]

There are three technologies for combustion:[13]

  • Pulverized Combustion (PC) - used in the older units of oil shale-fired power plants in Estonia
  • Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC) - used by Rohrbach Zement in Dotternhausen, Germany
  • Circulated Fluidized Bed (CFB) - used in two new units at Narva Power Plants in Estonia, Huadian Power Plant in China, and PAMA power plant at Mishor Rotem in Israel.

The most modern technology of a combustion of oil shale in power plants is a bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) or circulating fluidized bed (CFB) process, while the traditional way of burning oil shale is through pulverized combustion.[14][10]

Oil extraction

At present, the major shale oil producers are Estonia, Brazil and China, while some other countries as Australia, USA, Canada and Jordan have planned to start or restart shale oil production.[10][12] Although there are several oil shale retorting technologies, only five technologies are currently in commercial use, which are Kiviter, Galoter, Fushun, Petrosix, and Alberta Taciuk.[15]

The two main methods of extracting oil from shale are ex-situ and in-situ.

  1. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference wec was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Non-Nuclear Energy Research in Europe – A comparative study. Country Reports A – I. Volume 2 (PDF), European Commission. Directorate-General for Research, 2005, EUR 21614/2, retrieved 2007-06-29
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference dyni was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference laherrere was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Dr. James H. Gary, Editor (August 1979). "Twelfth Oil Shale Symposium Proceedings" (PDF). Colorado School of Mines Press. Retrieved 2007-06-02. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ "Shale oil. AIMR Report 2006". Geoscience Australia. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
  7. ^ "Nominations for Oil Shale Research Leases Demonstrate Significant Interest in Advancing Energy Technology. Press release". Bureau of Land Management. 2005-09-20. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  8. ^ "What's in the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing Programmatic EIS". Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing Programmatic EIS Information Center. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  9. ^ Bartis, James T.; LaTourrette, Tom; Dixon, Lloyd; Peterson, D.J.; Cecchine, Gary (2005), Oil Shale Development in the United States. Prospects and Policy Issues. Prepared for the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (PDF), The RAND Corporation, ISBN 978-0-8330-3848-7, retrieved 2007-06-29
  10. ^ a b c d Brendow, K. (18–19 November 2002), Global oil shale issues and perspectives. Synthesis of the Symposium on Oil Shale (PDF), Tallinn, Estonia: World Energy Council, retrieved 2007-06-16{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  11. ^ Qian, J.; Wang, J.; Li, S. (2003), "Oil Shale Development in China" (PDF), Oil Shale. A Scientific-Technical Journal, 20 (3), Estonian Academy Publishers: 356–359, ISSN 0208-189X, retrieved 2007-06-16
  12. ^ a b Hamarneh, Yousef (1998; 2006), Oil Shale Resources Development In Jordan (PDF), Amman: Natural Resources Authority of Jordan, retrieved 2007-06-16 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Alali, Jamal; Abu Salah, Abdelfattah; Yasin, Suha M.; Al Omari, Wasfi (2006), Oil Shale in Jordan (PDF), Natural Resources Authority of Jordan, retrieved 2007-06-29
  14. ^ Liblik, V.; Kaasik, M.; Pensa, M.; Rätsep, A.; Rull, E.; Tordik, A. (2006), "Reduction of sulphur dioxide emissions and transboundary effects of oil shale based energy production" (PDF), Oil Shale. A Scientific-Technical Journal, 23 (1), Estonian Academy Publishers: 29–38, ISSN 0208-189X, retrieved 2007-06-16
  15. ^ Qian, Jialin; Wang, Jianqiu (7–9 November 2006), World oil shale retorting technologies (PDF), Amman, Jordan, retrieved 2007-06-29{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oil_shale_industry&oldid=145621194"