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Tertiary recovery begins when secondary oil recovery is not enough to continue adequate extraction, but only when the oil can still be extracted profitably. This depends on the cost of the extraction method and the current price of crude oil. When prices are high, previously unprofitable wells are brought back into use, and when they are low ...
The oldest and the most common extraction method involves pyrolysis (also known as retorting or destructive distillation). In this process, oil shale is heated in the absence of oxygen until its kerogen decomposes into condensable shale oil vapors and non-condensable combustible oil shale gas .
In 1924, the Tallinn Power Plant was the first power plant in the world to switch to oil shale firing. [5] Following the end of World War II, the oil shale industry declined due to the discovery of large supplies of easily accessible and cheaper crude oil. [1] [4] [6] [7] Oil shale production however, continued to grow in Estonia, Russia and China.
Enhanced oil recovery (abbreviated EOR), also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. Whereas primary and secondary recovery techniques rely on the pressure differential between the surface and the underground well, enhanced oil recovery functions by altering the physical or ...
The oxygen within the oil, present at higher levels than in crude oil, lends itself to the formation of destructive free radicals. [31] Hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation can address these problems and result in a product comparable to benchmark crude oil. [30] [31] [39] [40] Phenols can be first removed by water extraction. [40]
Petroleum refinery in Anacortes, Washington, United States. Petroleum refining processes are the chemical engineering processes and other facilities used in petroleum refineries (also referred to as oil refineries) to transform crude oil into useful products such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline or petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil and fuel oils.
Oil extraction is simply the removal of oil from the reservoir (oil pool). There are many methods on extracting the oil from the reservoirs for example; mechanical shaking, [143] water-in-oil emulsion, and specialty chemicals called demulsifiers that separate the oil from water. Oil extraction is costly and often environmentally damaging.
In the 10th century, the Arab physician Masawaih al-Mardini (Mesue the Younger) described a method of extraction of oil from "some kind of bituminous shale". [37] The first patent for extracting oil from oil shale was British Crown Patent 330 granted in 1694 to Martin Eele, Thomas Hancock and William Portlock, who had "found a way to extract ...