• Achievements
• Innovators
• Frontiers

• Traditional Refining
• Synthetic Liquid Fuels
• Biofuels
• Energy from Coal

Powerful air compressors, optimized to handle large air flows, supply air and oxygen for the production of synthetic fuels. Courtesy Siemens.

North America relies heavily on imported foreign crude oil for use in its refineries. Vulnerable to global instability, these supplies are subject to considerable price volatility and availability issues. For these reasons chemical engineers have focused their expertise on the development of different processes that would use alternative feedstocks. Rather than relying on conventional crude oil and natural gas, the goal is to use coal and oil shale to produce synthetic liquid fuels.

The Saudi Arabia of coal

According to recent U.S. Department of Energy data, indigenous coal supplies represent more than 85% of total U.S. energy reserves. This supply is estimated to last for 300 years. The U.S. coal supply also accounts for roughly 64% of the worldwide energy reserves, earning the United States the designation of "the Saudi Arabia of coal."

Synthetic fuel production

Essentially two routes are used to produce synthetic liquid fuels:

1. The Bergius process, which uses hydrogen and brown or soft coal, and

2. The Fischer-Tropsch process, which starts with carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

Chemical engineers have been instrumental in advancing both of these technologies.