Synthetic fuels industry

E. J. Parente and A. Thumann, eds.. The Emerging Synthetic Fuel Industry, Fairmont Press, Adanta, Ga., 1981. 

Petroleum refining, also called petroleum processing, is the recovery and/or generation of usable or salable fractions and products from cmde oil, either by distillation or by chemical reaction of the cmde oil constituents under the effects of heat and pressure. Synthetic cmde oil, produced from tar sand (oil sand) bitumen, and heavier oils are also used as feedstocks in some refineries. Heavy oil conversion (1), as practiced in many refineries, does not fall into the category of synthetic fuels (syncmde) production. In terms of Hquid fuels from coal and other carbonaceous feedstocks, such as oil shale (qv), the concept of a synthetic fuels industry has diminished over the past several years as being uneconomical in light of current petroleum prices. 

KBW [Koppers Babcock Wilcox] A coal gasification process developed jointly by the Koppers Company and Babcock Wilcox, intended to supply the synthetic fuels industry. The product is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Dry, powdered coal, oxygen, and steam are injected into the reactor. The reaction temperature is sufficiently high that the ash is molten it runs down the reactor walls, is tapped out as a molten slag, and is quenched in water before disposal. In 1984, seven commercial synfuels projects planned to use this process but it is not known whether any was commercialized. 

Figure 7. Impact of sulfur recovered as by-product of synthetic fuels industry on projected sulfur demand to year 2000.

This paper has primarily discussed the latter topic and other speakers at this conference have discussed a number of the other topics. It is likely that the large pilot plants that will begin operation in 1980 will establish engineering parameters and information that will bring the production of fuels from coal to technical readiness and provide a firm engineering and environmental data base to establish the foundation for a synthetic fuels industry in the U.S. 

Much has been said in the past about the problems of generating a synthetic fuels industry - an industry which may require as many as 100 major plants in the 1990 s (1 ) - not very long... 

Financing is probably the greatest constraint for the synthetic fuels industry, but there are others. Two examples are locating a site and obtaining the necessary permits and water supply. Recently it was reported (8) that 22 authorizations from 14 agencies are required for construction and operation of a synthetic pipeline gas plant. 

Faced with the above obstacles to mining enough coal for conventional uses, it is difficult to see how we can develop a synthetic fuel industry based on coal unless we make it more attractive from an economic standpoint. 

I would like to throw this question to you. If you take a look at history and the many attempts we have made to get close to a synthetic fuels industry, there has always been something. 

In that connection, those of us who are familiar with the technology have a real responsibility not to make establishment of a synthetic fuels industry seem too easy. In our eagerness to say that we can do certain things, I think we have to be realistic about the fact that it is going to take a long time, and be sure that we exercise our responsibility not to make the public think that we are going to overcome this in, say four or five years. 

Eccles, R.M., DeVaux, G.R., and Dutkiewicz, B., in The Emerging Synthetic Fuel Industry, Thumann, A., Ed., Fairmont Press, Atlanta, GA, 1981, Chap. 4. 

Touring 1970 and 1971, the energy industries addressed themselves to the feasibility of rapidly approaching synthetic fuels industry. Decisions were made to expend a considerable monetary and manpower eflFort to keep the petroleum industry abreast and informed of this new developing technology. These initial efforts resulted in decisions by Ashland Oil and a number of other corporations to participate in coal-and oil shale-conversion process development. 

The reverse of reaction (2.1) is methanation. Used to remove residual CO traces from ammonia synthesis feedstocks, it was also developed as an important source of substitute natural gas (SNG) in the synthetic fuels industry. Since this reaction is exothermic, equilibrium yields are better at low temperatures (300-500 C). Thus, high activity is critical. Nickel must be highly dispersed. Preparational methods are required to produce small nickel crystallites. This high metal area must be maintained in the presence of extreme exothermicity, so that sintering must be avoided. This is partially accomplished through proper catalyst design, but process reactor type must also be considered. Recycle, fluidized, and slurry reactors are appropriate. 

Anthony N. Stranges, Germany s Synthetic Fuel Industry 1927-45" in The German Chemical Industry in the Twentieth Century, edited by John E. Lesch, Dordrechl/Boston/London Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. 

Eriedrich Bergius and the Rise of the German Synthetic Fuel Industry, /sis, 75... 

The Sasol plants in South Africa have been a fundamental element in the development of the LTFT synthetic fuels industry. 

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