Thanks for this Marcelino.
South Africa's Sasol oil-from-coal operation predated the
apartheid-era sanctions by quite a long time, by the way.
This from an earlier post by a list member:
> "One of our oldest scientists, now 84 yrs. old, was responsible for
>going into Germany post WWII and uncovering the remains of Hitler's
>synthetic fuels machine which had been bombed out. I'm speaking of
>Fischer-Tropsch oily-based paraffins which are hydrocracked down
>into shorter chains for synthetic gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. He
>brought back some of the original German scientists who'd perfected
>this technology which utilized coarse, low-grade brown German coal
>as feedstock. Three times he tried to start-up an American version
>of synthetic hydrocarbon fuels in the GTL arena and was blocked. As
>the highest ranking American energy technologist post WWII, he
>couldn't figure this out. It was over 20 years later that he
>realized that the late John Rockefeller of Standard Oil [Exxon] had
>been the politic behind the scenes, making sure that his new,
>alternative fuel ideas did not materialize. This scientist then took
>his blueprints for the first major GTL project and gave them to
>Sasol who built his first coal gasification device back in 1953 and
>it is still operating today. Sasol from South Africa is the oldest
>synthetic fuels producer globally."
Best wishes
Keith
>In effect, during the First World War Dr. Bergius developed in Germany the
>production of fuels by the destructive hydrogenation of coal, and said
>process was in operation, at large scale, in the Leuna Plant.
>Of about 13 plants operating in Germany by 1940 slightly more than 24
>million barrels (3,800,000 cubic meters) were produced of a synthetic oil.
>One ton of gasoline was obtained from 1.5-2 tons of coal.
>Catalyst was iron oxide.
>By 1940 more active catalysts were used, such as tin, lead, etc.
>Product was separated by distillation into gasoline, diesel and a residue
>that was recycled to the process.
>A typical gasoline contained 74% paraffins, 22% aromatics and 4 % olefins.
>Octane numerber of these gasolines was in the range of 75 to 80.
>By 1930, also in Germany, another synthetic motor fuel was also produced,
>initially known as Synthin, and later as Kogasin, by the hydrogenation of
>water gas, whichs is a blend of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, obtained by
>the treating coal with steam at high temperatures.
>Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch discovered in 1923 this technique,
>universally known as the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis.
>The syn-gas, the blend of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, with certain
>catalysts, at high temperature and pressure, produced a complex blend of
>alifatic hydrocarbons.
>One cubic meter of gas produced 130-140 grams of a hydrocarbon mixture
>(theoretical yield 209 grams), more than half boiling in the range of
>gasoline.
>Octane number of the gasoline was only 40, because of which a reforming and
>additives were necessary for said gasolines to be used in automobiles.
>The fraction with the higher boiling range, known as Kogasin II, had a
>cetane number of 85, and was mainly appropiate for Diesel motors.
>Processes developed rapidly, in particular by technologies derived and
>applied to petroleum and petrochemicals.
>New catalysts were also developed.
>South Africa, because of lacking crude oil and the international sanctions
>derived from the appartheid, developed a synthetic petroleum industry based
>on coal. As of now they have three large coal derived crude oil refineries,
>and petrochemical complexes. All of them based in the FT synthesis.
>They grew fantastically and they are pioneering one of the last big
>technologies for GTL, Gas To Liquids, to obtain gasolines, diesel and many
>other products.
>SASOL is planning to build 3 or 4 large GTL plants in the next 10 years.
>Inmediately they plan two plants, each with capacity of 34,000 bpd of fuels,
>feeding 340 million cufic feet per day of natural gas: One, together with
>Chevron in Escravos,Nigeria, based on large availability of natural gas.
>Another in Qatar.
>Shell built its plant in Malaysia in 1993.
>Mossgas GTL (now Petro SA) commenced production in South Africa in 1991.
>BP, British Petroleum, also ("Beyond Petroleum") initiated a plan for a 300
>bpd (barrels per day), US$ 86 million in October 1997, to start up this year
>2003.
>ExxonMobil developed a AGC-21 process and has a project also for Qatar, with
>capacity of between 50,000 and 100,000 bpd.
>Shell announced studies for eight locations: Egypt, Indonesia, Iran,
>Trinidad, Malaysia, Australia, Qatar, and also here: Argentina
>There are other players and projects, also in Perœ, Bolivia (2 projects) and
>more, here in Argentina.
>Investments for these type of plants, in the order of US$ 25,000 per
>barrel/day, which would mean for a 34,000 bpd plant = US$ 850 millions.
>!!!!
>Main product to be obtained: a nice, premium synthetic diesel, cetane number
>70 and over, slightly lighter than petro diesel, almost totally paraffinic,
>no aromatics, without sulfur.
>Changes in processes, equipment, catalysts are being developed everywhere.
>Scope of raw materials, coal yes, natural gas, biomass, wastes. Many of the
>developments are pointing to important reductions in costs.
>
>Marcelino Miranda
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 6:22 PM
>Subject: [biofuel] Fwd: Re: Clean Diesel Fuel From An Old Process
>
>
> > Forwarded message
> >
> > >Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 19:46:55 -0000
> > >From: "nortonvillars" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >Subject: Re: Clean Diesel Fuel From An Old Process
> > >
> > >The FT or Fisher-Tropsch process is an old German invention.
> > >Petroleum oil or gas from the earth, swamps or seabed is a natural
> > >product as much as sunflowers, dandelions or humans. The FT process
> > >takes apart the carbon and hydrogen and you can rearrange them to
> > >make carbohydrates or hydrocarbons as you see fit. This is all known
> > >technology and in use today in many places.
> > >
> > >Over the years, it was easlier to take coal, oil or gas from the
> > >earth and do it than using this years crops, animals or people. But
> > >this is upsetting the carbon dioxide balance and we must look
> > >carefully at taking last years carbon to do this years energy
> > >conversions.
> > >
> > >What does this all mean? Many posters on this site as well as others
> > >generally believe that it is better to use this year's plant and
> > >animal cycles (soybeans, lentils and people) to make fuels for energy
> > >than to use stored carbon and hydrogen from coal, oil or gas. This
> > >is fine and probably good policy. It is better to drink beer and
> > >wine than energy intensive whisky. Just as wooden tools only did so
> > >well until copper and tin were smelted for better tools, then iron
> > >and carbon for steel and so on. We have evolved to higher and more
> > >intensive systems which is again a natural process. Many forms of
> > >life on this plant use this method: weak spiders concentrate low
> > >volumes of some of the most toxic chemicals you can imagine to
> > >survive. We are no different, we concentrate matter to survive.
> > >Atomic energy is an example. We hope to replicate the sun with
> > >fusion for energy someday. Maybe we shall not, that is for us to
> > >decide or our creator depending upon one's
> > >cosmological view.
> > >
> > >Cleaner fuels can be made. Just as sanitation saved us from our own
> > >waste. Chlorine is a dangerous, synthetic element but it saved
> > >billions of us from water borne diseases. We can evolve to safer
> > >fuels. Biodiesel is one step, someday hydrogen, someday fusion,
> > >someday we might not need energy. Just think of Christopher Lloyd
> > >when he said the hell with plutonium for his flux capacitor and threw
> > >is some tin cans, banana peels and other trash. We can do it, it
> > >might take a few years.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >--- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, "Greg and April" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >wrote:
> > > > No what they are saying is that they make H2 and CO2, and use the
> > >catalytic
> > > > process to make the artificial " crude oil ", then at this point the
> > > > artificial " crude oil " is then refined like normal " crude oil ",
> > >to make
> > > > you standard petroleum products ( this is the standard process ).
> > >It is
> > > > this refining process that that is skipped, because the artificial
> > >crude oil
> > > > is used as is, with some additives.
> > > >
> > > > Does that make sense?
> > > >
> > > > Greg H.
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "murdoch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > > To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com>
> > > > Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 11:00
> > > > Subject: Re: [biofuel] Clean Diesel Fuel From An Old Process
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 10:48:46 -0600, you wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > >A slightly different way of making clean diesel fuel.
> > > > > >
> > > > > >http://www.exn.ca/Stories/1998/10/20/52.asp
> > > > > >
> > > > > >Greg H.
> > > > > >
> > > > > >[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I don't quite understand what they're saying here. Are they
> > >saying
> > > > > that they make H2 and CO and skip further processes? Then don't
> > >they
> > > > > have a gas and not a liquid?
> > > > >
> > > > > >Any organic substance, garbage, coal, pulp, human waste, can be a
> > > > source," says Suppes. He explains how the organic material is
> > >converted into
> > > > gas: "Normally if you heat them up in the presence of oxygen they
> > >just burn
> > > > up. If you heat them up when oxygen is limited, and there's little
> > >water for
> > > > them to combine with, instead of converting to carbon dioxide and
> > >water,
> > > > they tend to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen." It's this mixture
> > >that's
> > > > converted into what has normally been seen as a crude synthetic
> > >liquid fuel
> > > > in need of further refinement. What Suppes' team has shown is that
> > >this next
> > > > step is completely avoidable. Besides the 25% savings offered by
> > >avoiding
> > > > that step, Suppes found that with the right mixture of additives,
> > >the crude
> > > > fuel can outperform traditional diesel fuel by dramatic margins.
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