Tyrolean shale oil

Tyrolean stone oil is a black, strong -smelling oil that is obtained from a kerogenhaltigen, 180 million years old Tonmergelstein since the Middle Ages in Tyrol and used in folk medicine.

Occurrence

The Tyrolean stone oil is produced from an oil shale, a Lower Jurassic, kerogenführenden marl in Seefeld in Bächental plate and in the vicinity of Lake Achen. The kerogens in oil shale form under oxygen exclusion of dead plankton, sea water and fresh water algae and bacteria. Based on the rare occurrence of the shale oil deposits is classified as a special commodity in Bächental. Through the unfolding of the Alps formerly deposited horizontally, fossil-rich sediments were solidified and adjusted. The oil shale in Pertisau store today at an angle of 51 °.

History

The oil shale deposits in Tyrol was used in the Seefeld area since the year 1350, the reduction set in 1964. 1576 the alchemist Abraham Schnitzer has been given the privilege of shale oil production in the Inn valley by Archduke Ferdinand II.

Martin Albrecht, a mineral collector, discovered in 1902 on the western shore of Lake Achen at Pertisau oil shale deposits. He began there the utilization of shale oil in which the mining techniques ascended the Maria tunnels. In 1917 the plant was buried and destroyed by an avalanche. 1908 was discovered by Martin Albrecht Bächental, a tributary in the Karwendel mountains, at 1500 m above sea level, a further, high-yield deposits of oil shale, which is up today by mining mined on a small scale and processed into Tirolean mineral oil.

Processing

The kerogenhaltige oil shale is blasted altitude of 1500 meters from the bedrock, crushed and transported by a goods lift for processing in a carbonization. At approximately 450 ° C to escape the shale gas and can be distilled in Kondensiertürmen to shale oil. By sulfonation can be further processed to ichthyol.

Use

Tyrolean stone oil is solid for centuries part of the Tyrolean house and folk medicine. In the 17th and 18th century the oil was spread by so-called oil carrier and Arzneihausierer in Tyrol and Bavaria. The oil shale contains bound sulfur, which develops its effectiveness in rock oil. Long before the oil refining the shale oil was already too tar, light oil ( naphtha ), used for impregnating wood and fences, as a seal for roofing and road paving.

Further processing was finally reduced to the medical and cosmetic applications due to the low yield of oil shale today. Tyrolean stone oil is mainly used in the treatment of skin problems such as acne, psoriasis, bruises as so-called Zugsalbe and rheumatism.

In the cosmetic field stone oil is used today in the form of bath oils, creams, ointments, lotions, and soaps, shower gels and shampoos.

Shale Oil - Museum " Vitalberg " in Pertisau

In 2003, the Shale Oil Museum " Vitalberg " was opened, are provided in the information about the history of oil shale mining, the extraction and use of Tyrolean shale oil. Heart of the museum is a functional carbonization.

On the 100th anniversary of the discovery of shale oil deposits, a shale oil Adventure Trail was established in 2002 in Pertisau.

Saga

According to legend, it is the blood of the malicious giant thyrsus, who was killed by the giant Haymon in the fight at Zirl. Haymon injured Thyrsus at the heel. The seeping into the ground blood of the giants, the so-called Tyrsenblut, was trapped in the stone and preserved as a so-called Tyrschenöl.