Mishor Rotem Power Station

Oil shale-fired power plant

The oil shale-fired power plant was first commissioned as 1978 as a test pilot plant, with an installed capacity of 0.1 MW. Between 1982 and 1986, the PAMA, a subsidiary of Israel Electric Corporation, established and operated a 1 MW pilot plant. After a R&D program was carried out and funded by PAMA and the Israel Ministry of National Infrastructures with an investment of approximately $30 million, the 13 MW demonstration plant was completed in 1989. The generated power was sold to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), and low-pressure steam was supplied to an adjacent industrial complex. After 2000, the power station was operated by Rotem Amfert Negev, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals, an Israel Corporation company.

The power station required approximately half a million tons of oil shale annually, which was transported from a nearby open-pit mine. A large part of the ash generated in the process was used in products such as cat litter. Most of the ash product was distributed in Europe under the commercial name Alganite.