Torbanite, also known as boghead coal or channel coal, is a variety of fine-grained black oil shale. It usually occurs as lenticular masses, often associated with deposits of Permian coals.[1][2] Torbanite is classified as lacustrine type oil shale.[3]
Torbanite is named after Torbane Hill near Bathgate in Scotland, its main location of occurrence.[4] Torbanite found in Bathgate may have formations of bathvillite found within it.[5]
Other major deposits of torbanite are found in Pennsylvania and Illinois, USA, in Mpumalanga in South Africa, in the Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia,[6] the largest deposit of which is located at Glen Davis, and in Nova Scotia, Canada.[1][4]
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.[1][2][4] This evidence and extracellular hydrocarbons produced by the alga have led scientists to examine the alga as a source of Permian torbanites[7] and a possible producer of biofuels.[8] Torbanite consists of subordinate amounts of vitrinite and inertinite; however, their occurrence vary depending on deposits.[4]
Torbanite typically comprises 88% carbon and 11% hydrogen.[1] Paraffin oil can be distilled from some forms of torbanite, a process discovered and patented by James Young in 1851.
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