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Global Distribution and Advances in Production Technologies of Oil Shale
Yi Xi, Zhang Xin, Qu Ze-yuan, Wang Zhi-hua
2010, 29(3):
62-74.
DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1002-302x.2010.03.013
In the past few years, the United States, which has the largest and most concentrated deposits of oil shale in the world, and several other nations which also have significant oil shale resources including Estonia, Israel and Turkey pay high attention to explore and develop oil shale resources. Several factors have contributed to this, including soaring oil prices, emerging recovery technologies, increasing global demand for liquid hydrocarbons and the steady decline in conventional oil resources. Since 2006, more than 25 petroleum companies have released new oil shale technologies successively. Proceeding from the perspectives of oil shale production technology and promoting its commercialization, this paper introduces such advanced oil shale production technologies as reducing water use, improving energy efficiency, emissions management, reducing surface impact, use and disposal of waste shale, and effective groundwater protection, indicating that it is feasible to produce oil by use of oil shale technically and economically.
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