Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
house gas) and other pollutants can be removed from the gas before it is burned.
Yet gasification remains more expensive than coal itself, and while it is used for
industrial purposes it has not been widely used as a fuel source yet. Research is
ongoing to develop gasification plants that will capture and store carbon dioxide, a
process that will raise capital costs but reduce climate-changing emissions.
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Synthetic fuels, or “synfuels,” are liquid fuels converted from coal, natural gas, oil
shale, or biomass (plant-based fuels, such as wood, sugarcane, or algae). Conver-
sion of coal to synthetic fuel was pioneered in Germany a century ago, and the
Nazis greatly expanded the use of synthetic conversion to produce aviation fuel and
oil during World War II. There are several methods, primarily the Bergius process,
developed in 1913, in which coal is liquefied by mixing it with hydrogen gas and
heating it (hydrogenation); the coal is mixed with oil; and catalyst is added to the
mixture.
