In the central region of Jordan, the huge and as yet unexploited, oil-shale deposits (i.e. about 5×1010 tonnes) could satisfy the country's energy needs completely for several hundred years: the shale has an average organic content of between 9 and 13% by weight. Because there has been no interest in utilising this resource, there is little information available about the pyrolysis and/or gasification of Jordanian oil-shales. This is mainly due to the relatively low unit price of conventional competing forms energy, such as crude oil and natural gas, prevailing in the international market. In other words, at present the unit ...
The present prime concern of politicians is no longer the rapid depletion of the finite reserves of non-renewable combustible resources, such as crude oil, natural gas and coal, but rather the adverse environmental consequences of their utilisation. Oil-shale is one of the largest relatively undeveloped natural, fossil-fuel resources in the world and so an important potential source of energy. It is, in some respects, similar to coal, being a highly-variable solid material with respect to its physical and chemical properties, which dictate the overall processing economics of a commercial-scale plant for its utilisation.
Production of synthetic fuels and/or electricity from oil-shale ...
Oil shale is a petroleum-source rock, containing sufficient organic matter to make its utilisation feasible and under certain conditions financially worthwhile. In comparison with other fuels, it is regarded as a low-grade fuel with high ash and sulphur contents. Like coal, the world’s known reserves of oil shale are vast, being many times greater than the proven remaining resources of crude oil and natural gas combined. The conversion of solid fuels (e.g. coal, biomass or oil shale) to cleaner-burning and more user-friendly synthetic liquid or gaseous fuels is becoming more desirable. For example, ICGCC, which involves two-stages of combustion, with ...
.. BackgroundMineralresources and synthetic fuels will always be needed by modernsocieties: without them, declines in the standards of living andeconomic strengths of countries will ensue. The present totaldependence of several countries, like Jordan, upon foreign sources ofcrude oil, refined products therefrom as well as natural gas, with theattendant imbalances of payments, could be eliminated for severalhundred years by the production of synthetic fuels and electricity fromtheir indigenous oil-shale beds. In general, the vast deposits of oilshale, which have been found on all the inhabited continents, have asyet not been harnessed effectively, because of the apparentunattractive financial feasibilities of doing so.[, ...
