1224.    ---------------.  [GORDON, K.] Report on the Petroleum and Synthetic Oil Industry of Germany.  BIOS Overall Rept. 1, 1947, 1934 pp., PB 88,981s.

       Divided under the following headings:  Carbonization and gasification of coal; hydrogenation processes; Fischer-Tropsch process; crude-oil production; petroleum refining; lubricating-oil production; and testing and evaluation of products.  The report comprehensively reviews the oil situation during the war, the sources of liquid fuels, and the contribution thereto made by coal-oil processes.  Oil from various sources reached a maximum output of 6,930,000 tons in April 1944, but fell rapidly by the end of August to 120,000 tons.  Hydrogenation was the largest oil producer (up to 3,250,000 tons); Fischer-Tropsch was less important (up to 585,000 tons); while petroleum, coal-tar distillation, and benzol showed, respectively, 1,770,000, 945,000, and 380,000 tons.  Costs of synthetic fuels were entirely uneconomic compared with natural petroleum.  Translated to present-day costs in Great Britain, the production costs of hydrogasoline from coal and tar respectively were 27.5 d. and 21.9 d. per gal., and for Fischer-Tropsch primary product 27.1 d.  The processes for refining petroleum and for producing high-octane motor and aviation fuels were similar to those in general use but had not reached as high a state of development as in the allied countries.