Oil From Coal

CIM Bulletin, 1952

THE PROBLEM of producing synthetic liquid fuels from coal and other raw materials is of increasing importance in Canada as well as in the United States. This is due, to a large extent, to the continually increasing demand for gasoline and other liquid products which are now obtained solely from petroleum. The United States has reached a position where domestic supplies of crude petroleum must be augmented by imports and Canada is still a long way from self-sufficiency. In the event of war, there might well be an immediate need to find supplementary sources of liquid fuels. It is, therefore, expedient to consider alternative sources of production now - well in advance of the time when supplies of petroleum may prove inadequate to meet requirements. The purpose of the present paper is to give a short review of the history of liquid fuel production from coal, to describe briefly the research sponsored by the Federal Government on the coal hydrogenation process, and finally to evaluate the present status and future trend of the synthetic fuel industry, with special reference to necessary research work.

Keywords: bituminous coal, Fischer-Tropsch process, hydrogenation, National Petroleum Council, Coal, Liquid fuels, Oil, Oils, Petroleum, Plants, Process, Processes, Production, Research