[Peakoil] Shale Oil and How It Changes the World

[Michael Skeggs mike@bystander.net]

Kerogen is an especially poor substitute for crude.
It invloves massive energy expenditure to mine and 'cook' it to complete
the conversion to oil.
It might be suitable as a feedstock for industrial applications, but it is
a woeful source of energy.
Shale Oil, on the other hand, is crude oil trapped in rock (shale) of poor
porosity, and can be extracted by fracking. It has its own environmental
and EROEI issues, but it is the stuff getting all the press about growing
US oil production.
We have the kerogen sort in Queensland in the Rundle project Southern
Pacific and Central Pacific spent most of the 1980s failing to develop.
To my knowledge, kerogen has never been produced commercially - and I
suspect never will be. It requires similar effort to making synthetic
gasoline from coal or natural gas, and both those resources are easier to
get hold of, so why bother with half-baked kerogen.
The linked article is confused.

Regards,
Michael Skeggs



On 4 December 2012 13:48, Jenny Goldie <jenny.goldie at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

>
> Shale Oil and How It Changes the World
> Oil shale, also known as kerogen shale, is an organic-rich fine-grained
> sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical
> compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced.
> Shale oil is a substitute for conventional crude oil and the USA has a lot
> of it. The global energy map is changing, with potentially far-reaching
> consequences for energy markets and trade. It is being redrawn by the
> resurgence in oil and gas production in the United States due to shale and
> could be further reshaped by a retreat from nuclear power in some
> countries, continued rapid growth in the use of wind and solar technologies
> and by the global spread of unconventional gas production.
> http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/45289
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