World reserves of oil shales: review

Currently, the search is underway for new promising carbonaceous materials that can partially or completely replace high-quality coking coals in a number of metallurgical and coke-chemical processes, for example, in reduction or agglomeration. In addition, effective and economical ways of using local low-grade hydrocarbon raw materials, including oil shales, are being developed, which is an urgent area of research in many countries. The world’s reserves of oil shales are huge, and the potential for their use has not yet been fully explored. This work is devoted to the analysis of the properties and composition of oil shales at the largest deposits in the world. The theoretical studies described in this work allow identifying possible potential ways of processing oil shales to obtain valuable products for the metallurgical and coke chemical industries, based on the knowledge of the chemical composition and properties of this raw material.