What is process that converts coal into diesel fuel and gasoline?
A two-step chemical process augments a method of making cleaner-burning alternative fuel from coal and other carbon sources by transforming some of its waste products into diesel fuel, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, report. “Two percent of the United States’ energy reserves is in oil, 3 percent is in gas, and 95 percent is in coal,” said Dr. Maurice Brookhart, W.R. Kenan Jr. professor of chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. “Many people in the energy sector think that when oil starts to run out, coal will be a source of transportation fuel for some time before we perfect the science behind solar and hydrogen-based energy. Producing diesel fuels from coal is especially attractive since diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline engines.” The Fischer-Tropsch method of making synthetic liquid fuels from coal and other carbon sources has been used since the 1920s. Today, Fischer-Tropsch fuel
