1499. HOWARD, F. A. Conversion of Coal to Oil and Gas. Oil Gas Jour., vol. 46, No. 42, 1948, p. 70; Min. and Met., vol. 29, July 1948, pp. 388-395.

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Literature Abstracts

Paper presented at the 166^th meeting of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers at New York is abstracted. The development of coal liquefaction and the synthesis of liquid fuel from natural gas are traced, and some evaluation is given of the processes in comparison with the petroleum process. Whether water gas or natural gas is converted into liquid products, the process is the same and requires the same equipment and experience, the essential difference at the present time being that a more efficient method of coal gasification must be developed. In comparing the hydrocarbon synthesis process with the high-pressure hydrogenation process, the former looks the more attractive from both commercial and military standpoints in that the capital cost and steel requirement have been estimated to be as much as 50% lower. From a construction standpoint, the building of a synthetic-fuel industry does not seem to be the best solution of either the immediate shortage or the immediate military problem. It will be a slow and costly development as compared with the expansion of facilities for producing, refining, and transporting more crude oil and natural gas, and it will represent a worse drain on our economy.