Such technologies are needed to assure adequate energy as the world’s population grows by nearly a third, to nine billion people by the middle of the century, while oil and coal reserves dwindle.

In my town, on the edge of the gas patch, the old middle school still hosts safety training for coal miners.

Special petroleum geological and geochemical conditions lead to a special type of oils formed in the Middle Jurassic coal shale strata in the Minhe basin.