History of the oil shale industry

The history of the oil shale industry started in ancient times. The modern industrial use of oil shale for oil extraction dates to the mid-19th century and started growing just before World War I because of the mass production of automobiles and trucks and the supposed shortage of gasoline for transportation needs. Between the World Wars oil shale projects were begun in several countries. After World War II, the oil shale industry declined due to increased accessibility to conventional crude oil. As of 2010, oil shale was commercially used in Estonia, China and Brazil, while several countries are considering to start or restart commercial use of oil shale.

Early history Humans have used oil shale as a fuel since prehistoric times, since it generally burns without any processing. It was also used for decorative purposes and construction. Britons of the Iron Age used to polish and form oil shale into ornaments. Around 3000 BC, "rock oil" was used in Mesopotamia for road construction and making architectural adhesives. As a decorative material, oil shale was also used over the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid periods to decorate mosaics and floors of the palaces, churches and mosques. Shale oil was used for medical and military purposes. Mesopotamians used it for medical purposes and for caulking ships, Mongols used to cap their arrows with flaming oil shale. In the 10th century, the Arabian physician Masawaih al-Mardini (Mesue the Younger) described a method of extraction of oil from "some kind of bituminous shale". In the early 14th century, the first use of shale oil was recorded in Switzerland and Austria. In 1350, a knight Berthold von Ebenhausen was awarded a right to exploit the Seefeld oil shale in Tyrol. Oil shale was used for production of shale oil using an early retorting method of heating the crushed oil shale put in crucibles. The healing properties of a mineral oil distilled from oil shale were noted in 1596 by the personal physician of the Duke of Württemberg Frederick I. In Skåne, the Swedish alum shale dating from the Cambrian and Ordovician periods was used for extracting potassium aluminium sulfate by roasting it over fire as early as 1637. In Italy, shale oil was used to light the streets of Modena at the turn of the 17th century. The British Crown granted a patent in 1694 to three persons named Martin Eele, Thomas Hancock and William Portlock who had "found a way to extract and make great quantities of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a sort of stone." Shale oil was produced by extracting Shropshire oil shale. Later sold as Betton's British Oil, the distilled product was said to have been "tried by divers persons in Aches and Pains with much benefit." In 1781, Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald, registered a patent for an extraction process to produce tar, pitch and oil from coal and bituminous shales, using masonry retorts and wooden condensers. In Russia Peter the Great initiated an investigative program of Ukhta oil shale in 1697. Data on physical and chemical properties of Ukhta oil shale was published by a correspondent member of the Russian Academy Tertii Bornovolokov in 1809. In 1769, Peter Simon Pallas described oil shale of the Volga Region. In the 1830s Germain Henri Hess investigated Baltic oil shales with resulting determination of the semicoking process product yields. Oil shale in Australia was referred to for the first time by François Péron, et al., in Voyage de Découverte aux Terres Australes which was published in Paris in 1807, describing what was probably torbanite from the Newnes deposit.

Start of the modern industry

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