Scientists of the Haifa Technion announced today that they have successfully tested a new method of extracting shale oil with use of a laser beam that, they say, could revolutionize the word’s fuel industry. The announcement was made by Profs. Joseph Rom and Joseph Schwartz of the Technion’s aeronautical engineering department who conducted the research and tested the process in the Technion labs. A patent has been registered by the school.
According to Rom, who is a Likud MK, every country possesses oil shale reserves but the extraction of fuel, in the form of kerogen, a combustible liquid or gas, is extremely expensive, requiring tunneling, blasting and refining. The laser beam process, he said, utilizes relatively inexpensive industrial machinery and the kerogen can be marketed immediately without refining. He said a pilot plant and field testing would cost several million dollars and take 2-4 years to develop.
The method developed by the Technion scientists employs a moderate power laser beam directed through a narrow diameter pipe in a shale oil boring. The high temperatures created by the beam converts the shale oil into gases that can be extracted through a system of pipes. The kerogen may be burned as gas or condensed into a liquid fuel. Rom said the U.S. possesses shale oil reserves greater than the known oil reserves of all the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and that Israel itself has two million tons of shale, enough to provide for its fuel needs for 25-30 years.
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