The Industry-Academia-Research-Application Collaborative Innovation Base for Oil Shale at Jilin University was officially established on January 11, 2011, as approved by the 13th Standing Committee of the 13th Party Committee of Jilin University. The base, managed by the College of Construction Engineering, is located in the Oil Shale Complex Building on the Chaoyang Campus. In recent years, the base has developed rapidly and has become a national leader in the field of oil shale exploration and development technology.
The innovation base has established six scientific innovation platforms and 24 laboratories, covering a total area of more than 20,000 square meters. It is equipped with cutting-edge facilities for oil shale resource exploration and development and has the full technical chain capabilities for geological evaluation, pyrolysis and conversion, and physical and chemical analysis of rock, oil, and gas. It created the first national laboratory in China dedicated to oil shale development—the “National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for In-Situ Conversion and Drilling Technology of Oil Shale.” The base also established four provincial-level laboratories, including the Jilin Province Oil Shale Exploration and Development Engineering Laboratory, the Jilin Province Public Technology R&D Center for the Oil Shale Industry, the Jilin Province Collaborative Innovation Center for Shale Oil and Gas Exploration and Development, and the Jilin Province Oil Shale Exploration and Development Innovation Strategic Alliance. This has resulted in the formation of a sustainable innovation capability for oil shale resource exploration and development, making it a nationally recognized R&D base for oil shale.
The innovation base continues to tackle key technological challenges and has achieved a series of innovative theoretical breakthroughs and major technological achievements with independent intellectual property rights. Significant breakthroughs have been made in in-situ pyrolysis technology for oil shale, successfully extracting high-quality refined oil (oil shale oil) through in-situ pyrolysis. The base has also played a major role in the national oil shale resource survey and evaluation, leading to the identification of an additional 57.89 billion tons of oil shale geological resources. It has independently developed oil shale resource exploration instruments and bio-inspired drilling and extraction equipment, achieving breakthroughs in the efficient and comprehensive utilization of oil shale resources. The base has established a technological and service system for the exploration and development of oil shale resources in China. The research achievement "Innovation and Application of Oil Shale Resource Evaluation and Comprehensive Utilization Technology" was awarded the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress by the Ministry of Education in 2020.
In recent years, the base has published 416 academic papers, including 207 papers indexed by SCI and 108 by EI. It has been granted 85 invention patents and registered 22 software copyrights. Additionally, three academic monographs have been published.
