Shale oil (also known as cannel coal, boghead coal, alum shale, stellarite, albertite, kerosene shale, bituminite, gas coal, algal coal, wolongite, schistes bitumineux, torbanite, and kukersite) is a rock oil containing Kerogen. Kerogen is a complex organic material that includes large hydrocarbon molecules containing nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur.

There are also six particular shale oils such as cannel coal, lamosite, marinite, torbanite, tasmanite, and kukersite. (1987, Hutton)

Petroleum can be extracted from this rock, but that is too much expensive, even more expensive than extracting oil from the earth.

Shale oil is one of the first oils discovered by humans on earth. Its usage is seen even in the prehistoric era since there was no extra effort for burning it.

Using oil rocks goes back to 3000 BC, in Mesopotamia where people used it in road construction.

Modern shale oil extraction started in 1837 from Autun and then Scotland, Germany, and several other countries. Nowadays, the USA is the richest country in shale oil in the world.

 Different countries across the world during history did extract shale oil but Russia, the United States, China, Argentina, and Libya are the countries rich in shale oil. The very first usages of shale oil was fuel, as a lubricant, and lamp oil. It was also used instead of whale oil since it had the same features as that oil.

Shale oil is a type of unconventional oil found in shale formations that must be hydraulically fractured to extract the oil.

The process of extraction

Through the extraction process, hydrogen is added and impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen are removed.

The 10th century was the first time when shale oil extraction was done. From then until now many modern technologies and new machines came up to ease the process of extraction.

shale oil usage

Shale oil is widely used in carbon fibers, adsorbent carbons, carbon black, phenols, resins, glues, tanning agents, mastic, road bitumen, cement, bricks, construction and decorative blocks, soil-additives, fertilizers, rock-wool insulation, glass, and pharmaceutical products.

Caution:

Some shale oils yield Sulfur, which is a dangerous ingredient and pollutes the environment, causing dangerous diseases like cancer.

Mining oil shale

There art there are two models of oil shale mining; surface mining and in situ retorting.

 In the first model, oil shale is transported to aboveground facilities. There the oil shale is crushed and loaded into a reactor known as a retort, where the temperature is increased to about 400–500°C to decompose the kerogen and release the shale oil.

In the latter form, heat is applied directly to the rocks underground and the shale oil obtained is extracted in a manner similar to petroleum extraction.

Different factors affecting the oil shale

chemical composition, age, type of kerogen, and depositional history define the type of oil shale.

chemical composition

As mentioned above, shale oils are made of different metals, the difference in the amount of these metals define the type of shale oil.

Age

Million years take time for shale oil to be made, according to the time the amount of shale oil, its viscosity, and its density varies from time to time.

About type of kerogen and depositional history depends on the geographical background and conditions of the area.