The establishment and development of the global oil shale industry

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The industry for producing shale oil through the dry distillation of oil shale was established in the first half of the 19th century. Over the past century, the oil shale industry has experienced various ups and downs, but it has seen a resurgence in recent times. 1. The rise and fall of the shale oil industry in Western Europe: In 1835, France built the world’s first shale oil refinery, where shale was pyroprocessed to produce shale oil, which was then used to make kerosene, paraffin, and other products for lighting. Subsequently, countries such as the UK, Germany, and Spain also developed shale oil production. At the beginning of the 20th century, due to the growth of the automobile industry and World War I, demand for gasoline and diesel increased significantly, leading to further development of shale oil production in Western Europe; by 1937, production amounts had reached 500kt. After World War II, in the 1960s, the production costs of shale oil became uncompetitive compared to cheap crude oil, and the shale oil industry in Western Europe gradually ceased operations. However, the Ruhrbach Cement Plant in Dortmund, Germany, installed two units for the fluidized combustion of oil shale to generate electricity in 1963, and another unit was added in 2001; the electricity produced was used by the plant itself, while the ash from the shale was used to manufacture cement. 2. Development of the oil shale industry in the former Soviet Union, Estonia, and Russia. Estonia built its first oil shale retorting plant in 1924, using Estonian-type retorting furnaces (similar to Bincz type furnaces) to retort and gasify the Kuusita oil shale found along the Baltic Coast (the laboratory yield of oil from Kuusita oil shale was as high as 23%). Later, flue-type furnaces were used (1928–1960), as well as externally heated rotary furnaces (1931–1961). By 1940, the annual production of oil shale oil reached 174 kt; this oil was used to produce liquid fuels and chemical products such as phenol. During the period of the former Soviet Union, from 1948 to 1970, chamber-type furnaces were used for high-temperature retorting to produce shale gas, which supplied cities like Leningrad and Tallinn with gas. In 1980, two Grotte rotary furnaces were developed for processing granular oil shale (each furnace could process 3,000 tons of oil shale per day). From 1981 to 1987, two Kivit retorting furnaces were developed for processing lump-shaped oil shale (each furnace could process 1,000 tons of oil shale per day). By 1995, the annual production of oil shale oil had reached 400,000 tons; by 2002, it dropped to 200,000 tons. Estonia also uses Cookset shale (with a calorific value of 14 MJ/kg) for steam generation through combustion: the first boiler power plant using suspended combustion of powdered shale was built in Tallinn in 1930, with an output of 11 MW; the Kuhtla power plant was constructed in 1949 with an output of 39 MW, the Ahtrma power plant in 1952 with an output of 20 MW, the Baltic Power Plant in 1959 with an output of 1600 MW, and the Estonian Power Plant in 1969 also with an output of 1600 MW. In 2001, two units for steam generation through circulating fluidized combustion were built, each with an output of 215 MW; their overall efficiency reached 32%, which is higher than the 28% achieved by suspended combustion, and flue gas emissions were reduced, thereby improving the environment. During the Soviet era, Estonia’s shale power plants supplied electricity to the northwestern part of the Soviet Union, with generation reaching a peak of 18.9 TWh in 1980. After Estonia gained independence, these plants mainly met the country’s own energy needs, with total generation amounting to 7.5 TWh in 2001. In 1981, Estonia extracted 31 Mt of oil shale; this figure dropped to 14 Mt in 1998. Of that amount, about 3 Mt was used for retorting in oil refining, while the rest was primarily used for combustion to generate electricity. The ash resulting from the combustion of shale was used to produce building materials such as cement, as well as to improve soil quality. Russia first produced shale oil through the dry distillation of oil shales in the Samara region at Syzran in 1932; later, in 1952, 36 dry distillation furnaces were built in Slantsy, in the Leningrad region, (with each furnace capable of processing 100 tons of oil shale per day) to produce shale oil from the oil shales in that area through dry distillation. In 1981, 5 Mt of oil shale was mined and processed, and this figure dropped to 2 Mt in 1998. 3. The establishment and development of China’s oil shale industry. Oil shale refining in China: China’s shale oil industry has a history of 80 years. During its occupation of China, Japan operated shale oil plants in Fushun, where shale oil was produced by dry distillation of the oil shale obtained as a by-product of coal mining in Fushun (the yield of oil from Fushun shale oil shale in the laboratory was 6.5%). Between 1920 and 1930, after numerous experiments, they decided to use a dry distillation furnace of the Fushun type that combined dry distillation with gasification combustion, thus beginning the production of shale oil. From 1930 to 1945, 200 such furnaces were built in Fushun (each furnace could process 100 tons of shale per day), resulting in an annual shale oil production capacity of up to 250kt. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Fushun-style furnaces were gradually restored and newly built; by 1959, there were 266 such furnaces in the First and Second Fushun Oil Plants. The shale oil processing facilities were also upgraded, including the hydrogenation unit at Plant 3, which produces gasoline, kerosene, diesel, paraffin, and lubricants. A combined internal and external heating dry distillation furnace was built in Huadian, Jilin. A shale oil production base has been established in Maoming, Guangdong. In 1959, the shale oil production in Fushun reached 600 kt, the highest level on record. After 1960, due to the development of the Daqing oil field and the fact that the production cost of shale oil was much higher than that of conventional crude oil, shale oil production declined year by year; in the 1980s, the annual output of shale oil in Fushun and Maoming was only around 300 kt. By the 1990s, the shale oil production at Fushun Oil Plant No. 1 and No. 2, as well as Maoming Petroleum Company, came to a halt one after another. In 1989, with the approval of the **Planning Commission, a shale oil plant was established at the Fushun Mining Bureau (equipped with 60 Fushun furnaces), producing 90 kt of shale oil in 2000; it was expanded in 2002 to include 80 Fushun furnaces, resulting in an oil production of 100 kt. In addition, in Huadian, Jilin, as well, two or three private companies have installed several Fushun-type furnaces over the past few years to refine oil using Huadian shale. Steam generation for power production through the combustion of oil shale in China: The Maoming Petroleum Company in Guangdong built a shale fluidized combustion boiler with a steam output of 14.5 t/h back in 1965; two circulating fluidized combustion boilers with a steam output of 35 t/h were installed in 1985, after which operations were halted. In Huadian City, Jilin Province, three circulating fluidized combustion boilers using granular shale were installed in 1996; steam is generated for power production by burning Huadian shale (with a calorific value of 8300–12500 kJ/kg). Each boiler produces 65 t/h of steam, giving a total power generation capacity of 12 MW. The amount of shale processed annually is 300 kt, and the smoke emissions meet environmental standards. 4. Shale oil production in Brazil: Petrobras began working on the development of a new type of furnace for the dry distillation of shale in the 1950s – the Petrosix furnace, which is an upright cylindrical furnace with shale dry distillation taking place in the upper section and semi-coke cooling in the lower section. After laboratory simulations, pilot tests (1 kg scale), and pilot plant tests (20 t scale), an installation capable of processing 1,600 t/day of oil shale was built in 1972 at a cost of $35 million. Another installation with a capacity of 6,000 t/day of oil shale was constructed in 1991 at a cost of $93 million. The produced shale oil is fractionated into light and heavy fractions; the light fractions are sent to a refinery for catalytic cracking to produce gasoline, while the heavy fractions are used as fuel oil. Liquefied gas is utilized for industrial purposes; the hydrogen sulfide present in the dry distillate gas is converted into sulfur using the Claus process; high-calorific-value dry gas is used as fuel. Dry-distilled semi-coke is used to fill and cover vegetation. 5. Pilot project for the dry distillation of oil shale in Australia: SPP/CPM, a company based in Australia’s South Pacific region, utilized the rotary furnace technology for the solid heat carrier dry distillation of shale, invented by Canadian engineer Taciuk – the Taciuk Process, also known as ATP (Alberta Taciuk Process) – to scale up the process from 240 t/d to a capacity of 6,000 t/d for processing oil shale in Queensland, Australia. An investment of $170 million was made; in addition to the furnace and condensation recovery systems, the facility also included equipment for hydrogenating light fractions to produce ultra-low sulfur naphtha. The plant was designed to process 2 Mt of oil shale per year, yielding 200 kt of shale oil, with the production cost per ton of shale oil being only $70. However, since this plant was scaled up from a pilot scale to a capacity of 6,000 tons – a factor of over 20 – many problems arose in terms of process design and equipment. For example, it was found during testing that the shale used contained a high amount of water, and the drying section of the furnace was not sufficiently designed; therefore, additional facilities for fluidizing and drying the shale were necessary. From the test runs in 1999 to the suspension of operations in mid-2004, progress was made each year, with the operation rate reaching 50% in the final quarter. In 2004, South Pacific Petroleum Company sold the facility and the oil shale mine to Queensland Energy Company in the United States, and the facility ceased operations. This post was last edited by ldhappyxun2006 on 2007-12-26 21:05.]