The Oil Drum

57 comments on Shhh is for oil shale

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Berkeley on June 27, 2006 - 5:10pm

This is exactly what I have asked repeatedly. Why shale and not coal? The only answer I've been able to reach (on my own) is that Big Oil and Big Coal are separate worlds. Oil people just don't do coal.

I'm also curious about how the shale manages to find itself conveniently broken into 3-inch pieces in the top of the retort - when it was last heard of as a solid stratum 2000 feet underground - and also what exactly comes out the bottom of the retort, and where this subsequently is put?

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Mad Maxout on June 27, 2006 - 5:48pm

And to add a little to the shale debate, it can be used as-is (though busted up first) in powerplants like Estonia does. The coal can thus be saved for making liquid fuels for where it's really needed. While ground transportation can be electrified (trolley buses, electric rail, etc.) but liquid fuel is needed for things like the airplanes - which we'll use a lot less of except for warbirds. Shipping at sea can use shale in otherwise coal driven freighters. Until the freighters are converted, enough liquid fuel can come from coal. The vast majority of liquid fuel goes into the zillions of cars.

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LevinK on June 28, 2006 - 9:47am

I think it is more vice versa - coal people do not do oil.

It will be uncomparatively easier for a coal company to go down that road as the coal mining technology is well developed and they just need to build the liquification factories. The only way for an oil company to develop coal would be to buy some existing coal mines and pay the cost of convergation, which will make the total bill prohibitively high.