489.    ----------------.[CHAUX, R.]  Coal-Chemical Transformation.  Vol. 55, 1946, pp. 725-726; Coke Smokeless-Fuel Age, vol. 8, 1946, pp. 258-260.

                  Now that investigation of the German chemical industry has been completed, a clearer analysis of German scientific progress and development can be made.  As regards the Fischer-Tropsch process, around which almost fabulous hopes and expectations had been built, the sober truth is that the vaunted Germany scientific ability has produced almost nothing that was not known before the war and the impression now created upon our minds is that the commercial position of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is much the same after the war as it was when the war started.  The possibilities and the methods for making most of the transformations from coal and gas into fuels and chemicals were known before the war, and the interim research developments do not appear to have contributed greatly to improvement in the efficiency of the Fischer-Tropsch plants or to reduction in the cost of production.  To make the future of the process commercially and economically practical, the process must first be cheapened, and then a study must be made to discover in what direction it should be developed.  As a method for producing fuels from coal, the process is hopelessly expensive under British conditions, since the production cost, it is calculated, would be about 2s, or 2s.6d./gal. of gasoline, a condition that cannot improve because of the rising trend in the price of coal.  Further research, which would enable a high proportion of the products to be utilized as high-priced chemical products, would materially improve the economic prospects of the process.  For real economic improvement, however, a reduction in the cost of the synthesis gas is needed, and it must be produced from products that would otherwise be wasted, such as natural gas or refinery cracking gas.  The discovery of a catalyst not susceptible to poisoning by S would also be a useful improvement.