Sasol, synthetic gasoline

The coke oven gas process was replaced by more modern technologies. The Fischer-Tropsch process is now only used by the South African company SASOL to produce synthetic gasoline, while the third process, despite attempts to utilize a fluidized bed , is now totally abandoned. Today most of the hydrogen gas produced industrially is obtained by four major... 

Both the Fischer-Tropsch reaction and the Mobil process enable one to convert synthesis gas into hydrocarbons. Since synthesis gas may be obtained from coal, we have in effect a means of converting coal to gasoline. Germany moved its Panzer Korps in World War II with synthetic fuels made from the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, and improved technological developments have enhanced the attractiveness of the process. South African Synthetic Oil Limited (SASOL) currently operates several modern Fischer-Tropsch plants. Many organometallic chemists refer to both the Fischer-Tropsch and Mobil processes as "political processes because they are heavily subsidized by countries that find it important to be independent of foreign oil. 

This process was first used commercially in die 1950s by the South Afiican Synthetic Oil Corporation (Sasol) to produce transportation fuels (gasoline and diesel) using synthesis gas produced by the gasification of coal. The objective was to convert low-grade coal into petroleum products and chemical feedstocks... 

The company Sasol operates a synthetic fuel production facility consisting of 48 coal gasification (Lurgi) units. The product gas is generated at a rate of 2.1 million Nm /h with a 38 % hydrogen share and is used for gasoline and diesel production by means of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis [78]. 

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