anyone out there take a look at this one http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061217/bs_nm/coal_fuel_dc

about using coal to make "Liquid coal: A cheaper, cleaner 21st century fuel?" it talks about how the us airforce has done test with it in our B-52's in the form of a 50/50 mix with JP8 sounds very interesting to me. probable be like 15-20 years be for we see any at pumps but sounds sweet and brings our oil depenancey some what back home.

 

It's going to be sooner than you think. There are plants going up in Canada and I believe a couple will be built in Wyoming and Pennsylvania.
Sasol has probably the worlds largest GLT plant located in South Africa.
The Germans developed the GTL process to make fuel during WW2.

MikeyB

 

Montana's governor has been pushing this for quite a few years and has finally found a group willing to finance it. There is enough coal in Montana to fuel all of the US's vehicles for at least 100 years.
Read more> http://governor.mt.gov/hottopics/faqsynthetic.asp

 

The Germans did as similar thing creating a "synthetic diesel" from coal to build up fuel stores before WWII. They then counted on invading Russia to get to their oil reserves there.

Fuel from coal os a cool idea because we have a lot of coal...I wonder if sulfer content is an issue though.
-Geoff

 

Sulphur isn't an issue with the GTL process. Goes from a solid to a gas and back to a liquid. So is should be very clean burning.

MikeyB

 

GTL diesel has extremely low (0-5-ppm) sulfur, aromatics, and toxics. GTL fuel can be blended with non-complying CARB diesel fuel to make a cleaner diesel fuel complying with stringent diesel fuel standards.

Shell refers to the GTL process as a middle distillate synthesis (MDS). In all cases the middle distillate produced from this process can be blended with today's diesel fuel.

Natural Gas and Coal are just two fuels that can be syntesized.

I have read alot about this process. It is very intresting and cost effective.

Joe