Coal hydrogenation Britain

Acetylene traditionally has been made from coal (coke) via the calcium carbide process. However, laboratory and bench-scale experiments have demonstrated the technical feasibiUty of producing the acetylene by the direct pyrolysis of coal. Researchers in Great Britain (24,28), India (25), and Japan (27) reported appreciable yields of acetylene from the pyrolysis of coal in a hydrogen-enhanced argon plasma. In subsequent work (29), it was shown that the yields could be dramatically increased through the use of a pure hydrogen plasma. 

Imperial Chemical Industries in Great Britain hydrogenated coal to produce gasoline until the start of World War II. The process then operated on creosote middle oil until 1958. As of this writing none of these plants is being used to make Hquid fuels for economic reasons. The present prices of coal and hydrogen from coal have not made synthetic Hquid fuels competitive. Exceptions are those cases, as in South Africa, where there is availabiHty of cheap coal, and fuel Hquids are very important. 

Britain and Germany had the most successful synthetic fuel programs. The others were either smaller-scale operations, such as France s three demonstration plants (two coal liquefaction and one F-T), Canada s bitumen liquefaction pilot plants, and Italy s two crude petroleum hydrogenating (refining) plants, or technological failures as were Japan s five commercial-size plants (two coal liquefaction and three F-T) that produced only about 360,000 barrels of liquid fuel during the World War II years [2]. 

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