We will just have to wait and see.
The shear magnitude of the quantities of coal a refinery would require at the ratio given is mind boggling. How long does the process take to produce a gal of gas? Are the transportation costs factored into the price? Why not say 1 ton of coal equals 42 gal of gas? I have a hundred questions I like to ask.
Well, since it has been done during a lower-tech period of time, in the past, when "efficiencies" would have been more limited than they are now, in many different ways -- you can bet that since they were able to do it commercially before, that they will be able to do so now, as so much more efficiency than was ever accomplished way back then (with our entire technology in the world being so much less effective than it is now).
See post #38.
I think you’d be suprised what a barrel of oil weighs. By my (rushed) math, the coal to make a barrel of oil looks like it weighs about twice what the barrel of oil does. In other words, they are similar magnitudes...