The new millennium comes. Its arrival is accompanied by some encouraging events concerning oil shale.UNESCO is compiling an "Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS)", and oil shale has been chosen as one of the topics under the theme "Energy". Six articles are included in the "Oil Shale" topic: "Oil Shale Origin and Reserves", "Mining of Oil Shale", "Surface and In-Situ Retorting of Oil Shale", "Shale Oil Chemistry and Refining", "Shale Oil Chemicals" and "Environmental Impacts of Oil Shale and Pollution Control". I and Prof. Shu Yuan Li were invited to write the "Oil Shale" introduction; Prof. Emeritus John R. Dyni (US Geological Survey) about origin and reserves; Dr. Ingo Valgma (TalIinn Technical University, Estonia) - mining; Dr. Victor Yefimov (Oil Shale Research Institute, Estonia), and Dr. Shu Yuan Li (Petroleum University, Beijing) wrote the article about retorting; Dr. Shao Hui Guo (Petroleum University, Beijing) described shale oil refining, Dr. Hans Luik (Tallinn Technical University, Estonia) - shale oil chemicals; Prof. Jian Qiu Wang (Petroleum University, Beijing) wrote about the environmental impacts. All manuscripts have been sent to EOLSS Publisher in May of this year.
Another exiting piece of news is that Australian Southern Pacific Petro-leum and Central Pacific Minerals (SPP/CPM) have started the trial operation of the oil shale retorting demonstration plant by using Taciuk technology. The first-stage design capacity is planned as producing 4,560 barrels shale oil per day. Besides, Dr. B. Avid (Mongolian Academy of Sciences) obtained his PhD degree on the basis of his research work about Mongolian oil shale. In my laboratory, oil shale research work has restarted; now we are mainly involved in characterization of some new Chinese oil shale deposits.
In any case, oil shale played an important role in restoring the Estonian political and economic independence in the early 1990s.
At last, I wish the journal Oil Shale to play a more and more important role in promoting worldwide scientific and industrial activities in the field of oil shale.
Jia Lin QIAN