Geochemical assessments and potential energy sources evaluations based on oil shale and geothermal resource in Wadi Al-Shallala ? North Jordan

Oil shale deposit is considered as one of the fossil fuel sources in Jordan. Despite that, the needs of renewable energy resources become a must in Jordan. Wadi Al-Shallala oil shale is investigated in this work for geochemical, petrographic features and hydrocarbon potential as a conventional energy resource. Various petrographic and geochemical techniques were applied. Oil shale resource potential is evaluated for cooling and heating Sal village houses. Geothermal heat pumps, as renewable energy resource in the study area, were simulated for comparison purposes. Results show that Calcite is the main mineral component of oil shale. Magnesite, Ferrisilicate and Zaherite are exhibited in the studied samples. Other trace elements of Zinc, Cobalt and Molybdenum were presented, too. Calcium oxide of 41.01 % and Silicon oxide of 12.4 % are the main oxides reflected in this oil shale. Petrographic features of the analyzed oil shale found that the primary mineral constituent is micritic calcite, while the secondary minerals include carbonate mud and opaque minerals. Furthermore, it?s found that total organic carbon averages 3.33 % while the total carbon content averages 20.6 %. Moderate TOC values suggest that wadi Al-Shallala oil shale has a good source rock potential. Even though nitrogen and sulfur are of low contents in wadi Al-Shallala oil shale, direct combustion of the reserve for electricity generating will increase CO2 emissions by 2.71 Million m3. Two systems were simulated to cover Sal village cooling and heating demands. The conventional system is compared with geothermal heat pumps. Geothermal heat pumps are found to save 60 % of electricity consumption in heating and 50 % in cooling systems. The environmental benefits for geothermal system implementation will be a reduction in energy consumption as electricity. The savings in fuel oil will be about 9.35 Million barrels. While the reduction of CO2 emissions will drop to 1.5 Million m3. Results suggest that geothermal heat pumps are the best for satisfying cooling and heating needs in Sal village near wadi Al-Shallala.