Page 11 - Synthetic Fuels Handbook

x PREFACE

In the long-term, one cannot create a sustainable energy future by treating energy as an
independent topic. Rather, its role and interrelationship with other markets and other infra-
structure demand further attention and consideration. Greater energy efficiency will depend
on the developing world market’s ability to integrate resources within a common structure.
The dynamics are now coming into place for the establishment of a synthetic fuels industry
and it is up to various levels of government not only to promote the establishment of such an
industry but to lead the way recognizing that it is not only supply and demand but the available
and variable technology. For example, the technology of the tar sand industry and the oil shale
industry is not the 1970s. The processes for recovery of the raw materials and the process-
ing options have changed in an attempt to increase the efficiency of oil production. Various
national events (for the United States) and international events (for other countries) have made
it essential that we move ahead to develop fuels from nonconventional sources.
Voices are being raised for the establishment of an industry that produces and develops
liquid fuels from nonconventional sources but there is still a long way to go. Incentives are
still needed to develop such resources.
There is a cone of silence in many government capitals that covers the cries to develop
nonconventional fuel sources. Hopefully, the silence will end within the near future, before
it is too late.
In the context of the present book, the United States Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Section
301) defines alternative fuels as “methanol, denatured ethanol, and other alcohols; mixtures
containing 85 percent or more (or such other percentage, but not less than 70 percent, as
determined by the Secretary, by rule, to provide for requirements relating to cold start,
safety, or vehicle functions) by volume of methanol, denatured ethanol, and other alcohols
with gasoline or other fuels; natural gas; liquefied petroleum gas; hydrogen; coal-derived
liquid fuels; fuels (other than alcohol) derived from biological materials; electricity (includ-
ing electricity from solar energy); and any other fuel the Secretary determines, by rule,
is substantially not petroleum and would yield substantial energy security benefits and
substantial environmental benefits” (https://energy.navy.mil/publications/law_US/92epact/
hr_0301.htm). It is this definition that is used to guide the contents of this book and show
that sources that are substantially “not petroleum” are available as sources of fuels.
This book is written to assist the reader understand the options that are available for the
production of synthetic fuel from nonconventional sources. For, the purposes of this book,
nonconventional sources are those sources of gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels other than
petroleum and heavy oil.
In addition, the book includes appendices that contain lists of the chemical and physical
properties of the fuel sources and the fuels in order to assist the researcher understand the
nature of the feedstocks as well as the nature of the products. If a product cannot be employed
for its hoped-for-use, it is not a desirable product and must be changed accordingly. Such
plans can only be made when the properties of the original product are understood.
James G. Speight, Ph.D., D.Sc.