469.    CHAPMAN, O. L.  Synthetic Liquid Fuels.  1949 Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior.  I.  Oil From Coal.  II.  Oil From Oil Shale.  III.  Liquid Fuels From Agricultural Residues.  IV.  Oil From Secondary Recovery and Refining.  Bureau of Mines Repts. of Investigations 4651, 4652, 4653, 4654, February 1950, pp. i-xxii, 1-62, 1-70, 1-13, and 1-26.

                  Many technical problems are yet to be solved in placing liquid fuels from oil shale and coal on a competitive basis with petroleum fuels.  Developments are now centered on operation rather than on design and construction of laboratories and demonstration plans, and process improvements should effect a reduction in operating costs and thus the establishment of a synthetic liquid fuels industry from domestic resources at reasonable rates.  The estimated capital investment for a crude shale-oil plant (10,000 bbl. per day) is $4.138 per bbl. and for a coal-hydrogenation plant (30,000 bbl. per day) $8.227 per bbl.  Actual production costs per gal. of gasoline are estimated at $0.073 and $0.108, respectively, or allowing for a 6% profit on average unamortized capital investment, $0.09 and $0.145.  It would thus appear that oil-shale processing is not far from the point of commercial utilization.  The cost of shale mining has recently been reduced to $0.29 per ton.  It is conceded, however, that it is doubtful at present that a coal-hydrogenation plant producing motor gasoline would be an attractive commercial investment in view of the above costs.  It is reasonable to expect that these costs can be reduced by the new developments in catalysts and operating methods under investigation, perhaps by 15-20%.  Cost calculations for commercial gas-synthesis operations using coal will be based on the demonstration tests as carried out at the plant being erected at Louisiana, Mo.  It will be about a year before these estimates can be made.  Several gasification processes for the production of synthesis gas from coal are in the pilot-plant stage.  These investigations are of prime importance, since the cost of synthesis gas will always be a large fraction (50-70%) of the cost of liquid fuels from the gas-synthesis process.  (Lengthy abstract appears in Chem. Eng. News, vol. 28, pp. 914, 916.)