Sasol Internet
We submit this information in further support of our earlier contentions that technologies applicable to the conversion of natural gas into liquid fuels, as in Qatar's ambitious and documented undertakings, can be just as surely applied to syngas generated from coal.
Sasol must be recognized as the world leaders in coal-to-liquid fuel conversion. And, they have developed variations on their well-established Fischer-Tropsch coal conversion technologies to utilize syngas generated from either coal or natural gas.
As illustrated in these excerpts from Sasol's web site:
"Sasol has developed two new-generation Fischer-Tropsch technologies with significant benefits. These are the high-temperature Sasol Advanced Synthol (SAS) process and the low-temperature Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate (SPD) process."
"Two sources of gas are utilised. In our SAS reactors, synthesis feed gas from coal
is converted to yield gasoline and light olefins. In the SPD process, natural gas is reformed into synthesis gas and then converted to high-quality diesel."
And, of additional import:
"Our separation technologies have enabled us to become an international marketer of 1-pentene, 1-hexene and 1-octene. These technologies have also generated a phenols and cresols business with excellent potential for growth, as well as production of mining chemicals, alcohols, and ketones."
In other words, again as we've been saying, we can make a lot of valuable products, besides and including liquid fuel, from our vast reserves of coal.