Probing the oil content in oil shale with terahertz spectroscopy

Dear Editors, The merit of coal has been recognized by average people, whereas the value of oil shale has not been realized even by some experts in energy field. Compared to coal, oil shale also has dark looks and giant reserves while the content of ash in oil shale is higher. Owing to organic matter it con- tains, a sort of fuel named shale oil can be extracted via pyrolysis, which resembles crude oil in composition and can be further processed to obtain gas and diesel .