torbanite
{{Short description|Type of fine-grained black oil shale}}
{{distinguish|Torbernite}}
Torbanite, also known historically as boghead coal or kerosene shale, is a variety of fine-grained black oil shale. It usually occurs as lenticular masses, often associated with deposits of Permian coals.
{{Cite book
| last = Lee | first = Sunggyu
| title = Oil Shale Technology
| publisher = CRC Press
| page = 20
| year = 1990
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N0wMCusO6yIC&pg=PA20
| isbn = 978-0-8493-4615-6
| accessdate = 2008-05-11}}
Torbanite is classified as lacustrine type oil shale.
{{Cite journal | last = Hutton | first = A.C. | title = Petrographic classification of oil shales | journal = International Journal of Coal Geology | publisher = Elsevier | location = Amsterdam | volume = 8 | issue = 3 | pages = 203–231 | year = 1987 | doi = 10.1016/0166-5162(87)90032-2 | bibcode = 1987IJCG....8..203H | issn = 0166-5162}}
A similar mineral, cannel coal, is classified as being a terrestrial form of oil shale, not a lacustrine type.
Torbanite is named after Torbane Hill near Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland, a major location of occurrence.
{{Cite journal
| last =Dyni | first =John R.
| title =Geology and resources of some world oil-shale deposits (Presented at Symposium on Oil Shale in Tallinn, Estonia, November 18-21, 2002)
| journal =Oil Shale. A Scientific-Technical Journal
| publisher = Estonian Academy Publishers
| volume =20
| issue =3
| pages =193–252
| year =2003
| doi =10.3176/oil.2003.3.02
| url=http://www.kirj.ee/public/oilshale/2_dyni_2003_3.pdf
| issn = 0208-189X
| accessdate =2007-06-17}}
Torbanite found in Bathgate may have formations of bathvillite found within it.{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Bathvillite|volume=3|page=521}} Historically, two other names have been used for torbanite. Boghead coal is named after Boghead estate, also near Bathgate in Scotland. In Australia, the historical name for torbanite was kerosene shale.{{Cite report |url=http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp132I |title=Origin of the boghead coals |last=Thiessen |first=Reinhardt |date=1925 |issue=132-I |pages=121–137}}{{Cite news |date=1909-11-13 |title=SCIENTIFIC. |pages=54 |work=Australasian |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139215492 |access-date=2023-07-21}}
Other major deposits of torbanite are found in Pennsylvania and Illinois, US, in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa, in the Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia,{{cite web|url=http://web.aanet.com.au/bayling/airly.html|title=Shale mining relics at Airly, Genowlan Creek and Torbane, NSW|author=Brian Ayling|accessdate=2010-01-30}} the largest deposit of which is located at Glen Davis, and in Nova Scotia, Canada.{{Cite book
| last1 = Yen | first1 = Teh Fu
| last2 = Chilingar | first2 = George V.
| title = Oil Shale
| publisher = Elsevier
| location = Amsterdam
| pages = 4–5; 28
| year = 1976
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qkU7OcVkwaIC&pg=PA4
| isbn = 978-0-444-41408-3
| accessdate = 2009-07-06}}
Organic matter (telalginite) in torbanite is derived from lipid-rich microscopic plant remains similar in appearance to the fresh-water colonial green alga Botryococcus braunii. This evidence and extracellular hydrocarbons produced by the alga have led scientists to examine the alga as a source of Permian torbanites
{{Cite book
|last1=Meuzelaar
|first1=Henk L. C.|
last2=Windig |first2=Willem |last3=Futrell |first3 =Jean H. |last4= Harper |first4 =Alice M. |last5= Larter | first5 =Steve R.
| editor-last=Aczel | editor-first=Thomas
| title=Mass spectrometric characterization of shale oils: a symposium
| chapter=Pyrolysis mass spectrometry and multivariate analysis of several key world oil shale kerogens and some recent alginites
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X8ZJDf8Od4sC&q=105
| year = 1986
| publisher= ASTM International
| location=Philadelphia
| isbn=978-0-8031-0467-9
| pages=81–105
| accessdate = 2009-07-06}} and a possible producer of biofuels.
{{Cite book
| last=Lee | first=Robert E.
| title=Phycology
| year=1999
| edition = 3
| publisher=Cambridge University Press
| location=Cambridge, [England]
| url = https://archive.org/details/phycology00robe
| url-access=registration | isbn=978-0-521-63883-8
| pages=[https://archive.org/details/phycology00robe/page/246 246]–247}}
{{Cite news |date=1925-08-22 |title=THE VALUE OF CORRONGITE. |pages=73 |work=The Chronicle (Adelaide) |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89631223 |access-date=2023-07-22}} Torbanite consists of subordinate amounts of vitrinite and inertinite; however, their occurrence varies depending on deposits.
A rubber-like, elastic, highly-resilient bituminous substance, known as coorongite—classified as an organic-rich sediment and named after the Coorong where it was found—has been identified as a 'peat stage' in the formation of torbanite. It provides evidence of the lacustrine and algal origin of torbanite.{{Cite web |title=Corrongite |url=https://www.mindat.org/min-49308.html |website=Mindat.org}}{{Cite web |title=Organic-rich sediment |url=https://www.mindat.org/min-49301.html |website=Mindat.org}}{{Cite news |date=1923-02-23 |title=COORONGITE—WHAT IS IT? |pages=10 |work=The Register (Adelaide) |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63828846 |access-date=2023-07-22}} Substances very similar to coorongite had other historical names, depending upon the location of the deposits, such as n'hangellite from Portuguese East African (now Mozambique) and marahunite from Brazil.{{Cite web |last=Maxwell |first=James Rankin, B.Sc. |date=April 1967 |title=A Thesis entitled STUDIES IN ORGANIC GEOCHEMISTRY (submitted to the UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW in part fulfillment of the requirements for admittance to the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Faculty of Science |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/293069991.pdf |publisher=Chemistry Department, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW |pages=102, 103}}
Torbanite typically comprises 88% carbon and 11% hydrogen. Paraffin oil can be distilled from some forms of torbanite, a process discovered and patented by James Young in 1851.