Galoter process
VKG Petroter
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| Process type | Chemical |
|---|---|
| Industrial sector(s) |
Chemical industry oil industry |
| Feedstock | oil shale |
| Product(s) | shale oil |
| Leading companies |
Eesti Energia VKG Oil |
| Main facilities |
Narva Oil Plant Petroter |
| Inventor | Krzhizhanovsky Power Engineering Institute |
| Developer(s) |
Eesti Energia Outotec |
The Galoter process (also known as TSK, UTT, or SHC; its newest modifications are called Enefit and Petroter) is a shale oil extraction technology for a production of shale oil, a type of synthetic crude oil. In this process, the oil shale is decomposed into shale oil, oil shale gas, and spent residue. A decomposition is caused by mixing raw oil shale with a hot oil shale ash, generated by combustion of carbonaceous residue (semi-coke) in the spent residue. The process was developed in 1950s and it is used commercially for the shale oil production in Estonia. There are projects for further development of this technology and for expansion of its usage, e.g. in Jordan and USA.
Research of the solid heat carrier process for pyrolysis of lignite, peat, and oil shale started in 1944 at the G. M. Krzhizhanovsky Power Engineering Institute of Academy of Sciences of the USSR. At the laboratory scale, the Galoter process was invented and developed in 1945–1946. The process was named Galoter after the research team leader Israel Galynker whose name was combined with the word "thermal".
The further research continued in Estonia. A pilot unit with capacity of 2.5 tonnes of oil shale per day was built in Tallinn in 1947. The first Galoter-type commercial scale pilot retorts were built at Kiviõli, Estonia, in 1953 and 1963 (closed in 1963 and 1981 respectively) with capacities of 200 and 500 tonnes of oil shale per day respectively. The Narva Oil Plant, annexed to the Eesti Power Plant and operating two Galoter-type 3000 tonnes per day retorts, was commissioned in Estonia in 1980. These retorts were designed by AtomEnergoProject and developed in cooperation with the Krzhizhanovsky Institute. Started as a pilot plant, the process of converting it to commercial scale plant took about 20 years. During this period, the company has modernized more than 70% of the equipment compared to the initial design.
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