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The End of Oil? Breakthrough Turns Coal Into Clean Diesel
National Geographic ^ | 4/18/2006 | Sean Markey

Posted on 11/10/2006 9:54:57 AM PST by Red Badger

With the price of oil topping a wallet-busting U.S. $70 a barrel yesterday, the search for alternative fuels keeps heating up.

Last week, scientists announced what may be a new end-run around the oil problem: producing diesel fuel from coal, natural gas, and organic material.

Reporting in the current issue of the Journal Science, researchers say they have developed a way to shuffle the carbon atoms derived from cheap fuel sources like coal to form more desirable combinations, such as ethane gas and diesel fuel.

In their study, scientists scrambled the makeup of hydrocarbons—organic compounds found in fossil fuels—using two chemical processes, one of which earned last year's Nobel Prize in chemistry.

The reaction produced ethane gas and diesel fuel.

The synthetic diesel "is much cleaner burning than conventional diesel, even cleaner burning than gasoline," said Rutgers University chemist Alan Goldman.

Goldman co-developed the process with Maurice Brookhart, a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"It's a very clever idea," Robert Bergman, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Science in an accompanying news report.

"I don't think this will be an industrial process tomorrow. But conceptually, it is important."

Nazi Germany

The technology might one day wring more diesel fuel and ethane gas from hydrocarbon byproducts produced by oil refineries.

But the new chemistry's greatest potential may be as a follow-up to an 80-year-old technology known as Fischer Trospch (FT) synthesis.

Developed by German scientists Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in the 1920s, FT synthesis converts carbon from coal, natural gas, or wood into hydrocarbons, including propane-like gas and diesel fuel.

Nazi Germany used the technique during World War II to manufacture synthetic fuel from coal, churning out 124,000 barrels a day by 1944.

Today oil-poor South Africa uses FT synthesis to distill most of the nation's diesel from its extensive coal deposits.

One downside to the process, however, is the output of so-called mid-size hydrocarbons—molecules with 4 to 8 carbon atoms—which can't be used as fuel.

Hydrocarbons consist of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The number of carbon atoms (anywhere from 1 to, say, 99) determines whether a particular hydrocarbon is a gas, liquid, or solid and whether it's the proper weight to burn as fuel.

Goldman says his new method can convert the otherwise low-value byproducts of the FT process into high-value fuels.

He says, for example, that two mid-size hydrocarbons with six carbon atoms each could be broken up and reassembled into a two-carbon molecule (ethane gas) and a ten-carbon molecule (diesel fuel).

The chemist thinks the breakthrough could deliver U.S. energy independence.

"The United States, for example, has 40 times as much energy in coal than we do in oil, and we have even more than that in oil shale," Goldman said.

"So I think Fischer-Tropsch chemistry is really the key to energy independence for the U.S., China, [and] India."

Key to Energy Independence?

In the U.S. the governors of Pennsylvania and Montana, both coal-rich states, have touted FT technology as a future source of homegrown diesel fuel.

Last September, Pennsylvania governor Edward Rendell said his state's government would buy fuel from a planned FT plant in the state designed to convert waste coal from mining operations into low-sulfur diesel.

Montana governor Brian Schweitzer has expressed even more ambitious plans. He believes Montana's 120 billion tons (109 billion metric tons) of coal could supply the nation's gas, diesel, and jet fuel needs for the next 40 years.

Because FT plants are expensive to build and maintain (an entry-level plant falls in the range of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars), the higher cost of FT synthetic fuels have made them too pricey for U.S. markets in the past.

"When oil was $20 a barrel, it really wasn't considered economical," Goldman, the Rutgers University chemist, said.

But today's high oil prices are now tipping the scales in favor of alternative fuels.

(See National Geographic magazine's "The End of Cheap Oil.")

"Our hope is that what we've discovered will lead to something a little bit more economical [and] efficient," Goldman said.

Environmental Impact

One thorny issue is the net environmental impact of coal-based synthetic fuels.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, FT fuels are cleaner burning than petroleum-derived products, producing fewer particulates and less dangerous nitrogen oxide.

But as FT fuels burn, they also release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, coal-based synthetic fuels may produce twice the greenhouse gas emissions of petroleum-based fuels.

Experts say one alternative may be the use of carbon collectors derived from animal waste, plants, and other organic material, which trap carbon from the atmosphere.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: biodiesel; diesel; energy; engine; pollution
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A little old, but still ping worthy.........
1 posted on 11/10/2006 9:55:01 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: sully777; Toby06; vigl; Cagey; Abathar; A. Patriot; B Knotts; getsoutalive; muleskinner; ...

Rest in Peace, old friend, your work is finished.......

Diesel "Ping" List: If you want on or off the DIESEL "KNOCK" LIST just FReepmail me........

This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days......

2 posted on 11/10/2006 9:55:26 AM PST by Red Badger (New! HeadOn Hemorrhoid Medication for Liberals!.........Apply directly to forehead.........)
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To: Red Badger

Fischer-Tropsch rocks.


3 posted on 11/10/2006 9:59:07 AM PST by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: Wally_Kalbacken

Bush's fault.


4 posted on 11/10/2006 10:00:47 AM PST by Blue Turtle
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To: Wally_Kalbacken

ping


5 posted on 11/10/2006 10:00:49 AM PST by CPT Clay (Drill ANWR, Personal Accounts NOW.)
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To: Red Badger

Diesal fuel recently has been twenty or thirty cents a gallon more than premium gas. THAT will have to stop before I ever buy a diesal car.


6 posted on 11/10/2006 10:01:44 AM PST by tomzz
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To: Red Badger

Cool! Thanks for posting this.


7 posted on 11/10/2006 10:02:31 AM PST by lesser_satan (EKTHELTHIOR!!!)
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To: tomzz

"Diesal fuel recently has been twenty or thirty cents a gallon more than premium gas. THAT will have to stop before I ever buy a diesal car."

Of course you also get much better mileage and longevity out of a diesel. The torque is nice too.


8 posted on 11/10/2006 10:03:33 AM PST by SmoothTalker
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To: Red Badger

You can take my spark plugs when you pry them from my cold dead 66 Chevelle.


9 posted on 11/10/2006 10:03:53 AM PST by MadeInAmerica (- If ILLEGAL means Undocumented - Then Breaking and Entering means Unannounced Visit)
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To: Wally_Kalbacken
Fischer-Tropsch rocks.

What label do they record on? Coal Dust Records?.......

10 posted on 11/10/2006 10:05:04 AM PST by Red Badger (New! HeadOn Hemorrhoid Medication for Liberals!.........Apply directly to forehead.........)
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To: tomzz
Diesal fuel recently has been twenty or thirty cents a gallon more than premium gas. THAT will have to stop before I ever buy a diesal car.

Why? Diesel cars are FAR more fuel efficient, so the extra 5 or 10% you spend at the pump (likely only temporary anyway) is easily made up for by the fact that you have to go to the pump less often.

11 posted on 11/10/2006 10:06:04 AM PST by Alter Kaker ("Whatever tears one sheds, in the end one always blows one's nose." - Heine)
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To: MadeInAmerica

You could always drop in a diesel............


12 posted on 11/10/2006 10:06:09 AM PST by Red Badger (New! HeadOn Hemorrhoid Medication for Liberals!.........Apply directly to forehead.........)
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To: SmoothTalker
...mileage and longevity out of a diesel.

Yes, people tend to forget, or do not know that diesel engines parts are made of tougher stuff than gasoline engines..........

13 posted on 11/10/2006 10:07:39 AM PST by Red Badger (New! HeadOn Hemorrhoid Medication for Liberals!.........Apply directly to forehead.........)
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To: Red Badger
Environmental groups will be all over this to stop it, just like they oppose windmills because they are giant bird blenders.

The only way to get coal is to mine it, and that would mean hurting mother earth to these moon-bats. They are against any mining and try to stop it at all costs, which is one reason metal prices have been climbing due to reduced exploration directly attributed to these type of groups.

Don't expect this to get too far unless the U.S. Air Force starts supplementing it's jet fuel supplies with this technology, after the recent successful test on a B-52 of this fuel, which would force it's adoption.
14 posted on 11/10/2006 10:08:36 AM PST by Duke Phelan (Practice makes perfect, but nobody is perfect, so why practice?)
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To: Red Badger

Might be a coal gassification or coal liquification plant coming to Anchorage in support of a chemical plant of some kind. There isn't much actual manufacturing industry in Alaska at this point in time.


15 posted on 11/10/2006 10:08:55 AM PST by RightWhale (RTRA DLQS GSCW)
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To: MadeInAmerica
>>>>You can take my spark plugs when you pry them from my cold dead 66 Chevelle.<<<<

Fear not, if this technology takes off, it will surely drive gas prices lower and your Chevelle will be cheaper to drive.
16 posted on 11/10/2006 10:09:01 AM PST by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: Red Badger
It just wouldn't be the same Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
17 posted on 11/10/2006 10:09:12 AM PST by MadeInAmerica (- If ILLEGAL means Undocumented - Then Breaking and Entering means Unannounced Visit)
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To: Red Badger

Great technology, all it takes is a buttload of cheap electricity to make it profitable. What's that? Electricity isn't cheap? Crud, back to the drawing table.


18 posted on 11/10/2006 10:11:47 AM PST by Tailback
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To: MadeInAmerica

Beautiful!..............


19 posted on 11/10/2006 10:12:20 AM PST by Red Badger (New! HeadOn Hemorrhoid Medication for Liberals!.........Apply directly to forehead.........)
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To: Red Badger

"mid sized hydrocarbons with 4-8 carbon atoms and can't be used as fuel..."?????


I need to go down to the local store and get some high OCTANE gas.

Come to think of it, I need a new BUTANE lighter. And while I'm out, I might as well fill up my PROPANE tank.

(OK, OK, I admit Propane is C3, but you get the idea)


20 posted on 11/10/2006 10:12:21 AM PST by djf (Islam!! There's a flag on the moon! Guess whose? Hint: Not yours!)
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