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13 comments on An echoing Shhh, or more on mining of oil shale

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cactus on June 29, 2006 - 1:28am

Alternatively, at 25gal/ton, 1 million barrel per day production (5% of US consumption) would require mining and processing of just over 600 million tons (Mt) oil shale per year. That is equivalent to about 60% of the tonnage of US domestic coal production (1030 Mt/y).

To achieve oil independence, oil shale would need to be mined at a rate equal to more than 8 times current US coal production.

Energy content in 1 ton of oil shale: 2700MJ
Energy content in 1 ton of coal: 23000MJ

Compared to coal, mining the same tonnage of oil shale yields around 12% of the energy.

Hmmm, if insitu is not feasible, can't see this one flying somehow and we haven't even gotten to EROI, water usage, disposal of the waste material, GHG production...

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Luis de Sousa on June 29, 2006 - 3:29am

Hi cactus, very good point indeed.

Knowing that the EPR of Coal is around 30, that 12% figure gives us some (but small) hope about Shale.

If 1 ton of coal yields 23000 MJ, the energy spent to mine it would be about 770 MJ (766,666 actually).

So using the same techniques, and assuming that mining 1 ton of Shale takes the same energy has minig 1 ton f Coal, Shale would have an EPR of 3.5. This is lower than Nuclear but higher than Onshore Wind.

Still that rock would have to be heated up, lowering even further the EPR value.

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tom deplume on June 29, 2006 - 3:26pm

You are way off on wind power EROEI. The larger turbine recoop production energy in about 1 year. With a 20 service life minimum that's a 20:1 EROEI.

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“This order [i.e. capitalism] is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which today determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with the economic acquisition, with irresistible force. Perhaps it will so determine them until the last ton of fossilized coal is burnt.”

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