Hobbies And Interests

How to Make Oil From Rocks

Oil shale is a type of sedimentary rock that contains a significant amount of kerogen. It is a solid mixture of organic compounds from which oil can be extracted. These deposits are found in sediments from the Cambrian to Tertiary ages and are located throughout the world. While oil from shale deposits is more expensive to extract than liquid petroleum deposits, some shale deposits are being exploited due to the decline in traditional oil reserves in order to meet the need for global oil.

Things You'll Need

  • Oil shale
  • Mining abilities
  • Retorting facility
  • Oil refining facility
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Instructions

  1. Directions

    • 1

      Identify the presence of an oil shale field. Shale oil is formed in areas of shallow, slow-moving water, such as freshwater and saline ponds. Other deposits are found in igneous intrusions, formed by tectonic events and volcanism. Countries with large deposits include China, Estonia, the western U.S. and Brazil.

    • 2

      Mine the oil shale. Once the shale has been identified and determined to have a high enough oil content to be economically viable to produce, then it must be removed by mining. Heavy machinery and manual labor is used to load the shale onto trucks and railroad boxes for transport to refineries.

    • 3

      Subject the oil shale to the retorting process. The retorting process takes place inside a special building called a retorter. The shale is superheated within the facility to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit until it vaporizes; then, as the steam runs through the retorter, the oil is processed out. It takes about a ton of oil shale for a barrel of oil to be produced.

    • 4

      Refine the crude oil for use in various industries and processes. Crude oil must be refined in a special refinery in which impurities are removed through the cracking process. This process requires the oil to be superheated and condensed at various stages through condensers.


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