By Mutaz Mango

30-07-03 In 1913, an American named William Burton patented a commercial process for „craking“ oil into its constituent parts. Since then, most of the world's industries have become reliant on these products. This, in addition to the increasing energy demand, heralded the world oil dependency.
Yet, petroleum has a close relative that did not undergo the complete transformation the dead organic matter went through millions of years ago, and there seems to be a lot of it around, with the potential to fill in the duties, so to speak.

Oil shale is a fossil fuel. Dead organic material that was buried before being oxidised by air underwent a series of slow chemical reactions that turned the organic molecules into hydrocarbons (molecules made of hydrogen and carbon atoms). Petroleum itself is made-up of different types of hydrocarbons, mostly alkanes. The oil shale did not go the whole way.
Some of the organic matter was deposited with clays, the latter forming a certain type of rock called shales. The shale-forming temperatures and pressures are below those produce oil. Petroleum formed under favourable conditions migrates, just like groundwater, and generally accumulated in more permeable rocks, such as sandstone and limestone.

Oil shale contains about 25 % solid organic material, mostly being kerogen and some bitumen. Kerogen, from the Greek word meaning "oil generator", is a complex hydrocarbon molecule, petroleum's alkanes ancestor. It was discovered that the linking steps from oil shale to oil could be speeded up by heating in the absence of air, a process known as pyrolysis (or destructive distillation), with temperatures in the range of 500 degrees centigrade. When the kerogen is converted to oil and separated, the process is called "retorting". The oil derived from the oil shale is called shale oil.
Apart from making oil, oil shale is an organic raw material for various chemical products, such as adhesives and resins, cement and building material insulation and sulphur.

Jordan has looked into oil shale potential since the late 1960s, but nothing substantial was done until twenty years later, when studies were carried out on two deposits in Al Lujjun and Sultani, southwest of the country. Geological studies since then have shown that over 60 % of the country contains oil shale deposits, with proven near surface quantities amounting to 40 bn tons. Additional reserves were estimated at 20 bn tons. According to the World Energy Council, the country has one of the largest "proved amount in place" oil shale in the world.
The largest oil shale reserves occur in the US, containing about two thirds of the world's potentially recoverable oil shale resources, which are estimated to be able to produce 2.6 tn barrels of oil.

The nation's oil shale have an oil yield of around 10 %. That means the reserves contain 4 bn tons of extractable oil, an amount that would completely meet the country's energy demands for the next few centuries.
"We believe that oil shale is the gold of Jordan," says Malek Kabariti, president of the National Energy Research Centre.
And so, with the preliminary studies on availability out of the way, the current stage is on the practical utilisation of the material. A prototype energy plant was built at Tafileh University last month, aiming at evaluating the performance of the oil shale as a direct fuel for burning. Also, four tons of oil shale was crushed to different sizes and sent to various universities for research, an initiative to get the nation's scientific community involved, explained Kabariti.

Oil shale has been used throughout history as a direct energy source, like coal. When crushed, the shale can be directly burnt. But with a sulphur content of about 9 %, and various organic compounds present, there is an environmental aspect to consider.
Estonia has been using oil shale as a source of oil for about a century. Work began in 1838 to obtain oil by distillation, but was not exploited until fuel shortages during World War I. Since then, oil shale has had an enormous influence on the energy economy: A 1,400 MW thermal power station was built in 1965, followed by a 1,600 MW one in 1973, and electricity was being exported.

But the opening of a nuclear power station in 1981 in the region brought about the decline of Estonian oil shale production. Now the Estonian government is beginning to tackle the air and water pollution problems that nearly a century of oil shale processing has brought. A national development plan states that the share of oil shale in the Estonian national primary energy balance must be reduced from 62 % to 52-54 % by 2005 and to 47-50 % by 2010.
Can Jordan handle a similar environmental impact? The answer is probably no, but there is one difference, it seems. Kabariti explains that with the advent of modern industrial technologies and the environment being a hot issue, various apparatuses can be added to the oil-extracting equipment to minimise the release of harmful material. Fluidised bed direct burning technology, another extraction process, is known to be superior to conventional boilers, with low sulphur and nitrogen compound emissions.

Mining the material, like any open mining, poses an environmental threat by dredging up heavy metals and unwanted substances better left underground. Kabariti says that having the extraction plant near the mine would allow returning the by-products into the mine pits, as well as reduce transportation. This must be done carefully, though, as the waste is a health concern. Furthermore, large quantities of water are needed for the extraction, a resource that is becoming as precious as oil itself.
Cost is another obstacle. The US Synfuel Programme under former US President Jimmy Carter concluded that oil extraction at the time was not economically viable.
"It would cost tens of millions of dollars for a plant that is able to produce reasonable amounts of shale oil," says Kabariti. But nowadays, the cost of $ 10 per barrel of oil extracted is apparently feasible, providing reasonable return to investment.
"In the past, there was doubt concerning the feasibility of utilising oil shale; now it is time to come to a final conclusion whether to go on or stop altogether within the next 10-15 years," said Kabariti, stressing that research is the key.

Thus, if things go in the way of oil from shale, the next logical step would be to build a pilot plant of significant output that would reduce dependency on imported energy. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has invited proposals for a build, own and operate (BOO) scheme.
The larger picture is energy, the consumption of which can be reduced without much difficulty.
"We have shown that if the local industry does minor modifications, an annual JD150 mm could be saved. This is equivalent to about JD1 bn in exports," said Kabariti, adding: "Imagine how much you have to do to export JD1 bn."