Liquid fuel production
We are one of the biggest producers of oil shale oil in the world
Oil from oil shale is essentially a synthetic oil used by heat producers, energy companies, manufacturers and sellers of marine and automotive fuels, road builders and farmers.
Eesti Energia has developed Enefit - a unique and efficient technology. Our goal is to expand cogeneration of liquid fuels, electricity and gas to ensure efficient oil shale refining.
Advantages of Enefit technology
- Enefit technology makes it possible to use all the oil shale extracted, including fine oil shale.
- No energy is used to produce oil because the production equipment supplies it itself.
- As a by-product of production, high-calorific shale gas is produced, which we use to generate electricity in power plants. The by-product of shale oil is ash, which is not included in the list of hazardous waste according to the decision of the Ministry of the Environment. The ash can be used in agriculture as well as in construction. With Enefit technology, we extract more than 80% of the energy it contains.
Enefit technology is constantly evolving
Productivity, yields and accident-free operation have the greatest impact on the efficiency of production. In the last few years, the engineers of Eesti Energia have managed to significantly improve all three indicators, and this development work is to continue in the future.
Valuable oil from old car tyres
Old tires are a big disaster for nature, but for oil producers, it is energy-rich material, as one ton of tires contains about 4 times more oil than one ton of oil shale.
With the Enefit technology, up to 10% of oil shale can be replaced with old tyres and used to produce oil, semi-coke gas and electricity.
Our capacity is to produce liquid fuel from up to 260,000 tons of tires per year - thus we can utilize both Estonian and neighbouring countries' used tires. Tire chopping capability in Estonia does not yet allow the technology to be fully utilized.
How are tires made into oil?
1
To produce liquid fuels, oil shale is crushed, up to 10% crushed old tires are added.
2
Crushed oil shale and old tires are heated in retort at 500° C.
3
The raw material releases oil and gas vapors which condense into shale oil.
Four fun facts about liquid fuels
- According to the International Energy Agency, global demand for liquid fuels will increase until 2040.
- The Enefit280 factory retort is 18 meters long and 6.4 meters in diameter. The most important unit of the plant was designed and manufactured by Enefit Solutions, a subsidiary of Eesti Energia.
- Oil production produces 3.3 times less carbon dioxide emissions than electricity production from oil shale.
- We have produced more than one million tonnes of shale oil, which can be compared to the average consumption of liquid fuels in Estonia during 32 years.
