PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATURE-LIKE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THERMOHYDROLYTIC PROCESSING OF NON-CONVENTIONAL HYDROCARBON RESOURCES

For the development of many regions of Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and other countries interested in using their non-conventional hydrocarbon resources (sapropelite coal and oil shale, microalgae biomass), a new strategy is being considered for the development of nature-like technologies for their processing, as well as exploration and production of hard-to-recover shale hydrocarbons through technologisation of the discovery of the regularity of hydrothermal naphthoidogenesis. The main thing in this discovery is that in hydrothermal fluids (sub- and supercritical aqueous media) it is possible to purposefully carry out molecular disassembling of the organic matter of sapropelite rocks and lipid-enriched microalgae into organic compounds that retain the structural features of the original fragments of organic mass and to a large extent are related to biomarker compounds. These biomarker compounds are reliably identified by modern chromatographic and spectral methods, so it becomes possible to monitor the information about the relationship between the genesis, composition and structure of the organic mass of sedimentary rocks and their properties. This information is important for the development of highly efficient methods for producing shale hydrocarbons. It is also applicable for molecular diagnostics of the hydrocarbon-generating potential of sedimentary basins by assessing the lithogenetic maturity of rock organic matter from the composition and content of biomarker compounds. It is expected to obtain technologically significant results in increasing the efficiency of processing non-conventional hydrocarbon resources due to the possibility of controlled selective cleavage of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom cross-links in the organic mass of microalgae and oil shale rocks under oxidative hydrolytic conditions similar to those that occur in natural, environmentally pure processes of naphthoidogenesis. The need to expand and deepen the studies aimed at technologising the scientific discovery of the regularity of hydrothermal naphthoidogenesis, which is the basis for the development of nature-like technologies for processing non-conventional hydrocarbon resources into valuable chemical products (motor fuel components, surfactants, etc.) and materials (road construction bitumen) is substantiated.