The Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program was a program run by the United States Bureau of Mines to create the technology to produce synthetic fuel from coal and oil shale. It was initiated in 1944 during World War II. The Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act approved on April 5, 1944 authorized the use of US$30 million over a five-year period for

History

The Bureau of Mines first studied the extraction of oil from oil shale between 1925 and 1928. Between 1928 and 1944, the Bureau experimented with coal liquefaction by hydrogenation using the

Bergius process The Bergius process is a method of production of liquid hydrocarbons for use as synthetic fuel by hydrogenation of high-volatile bituminous coal at high temperature and pressure. It was first developed by Friedrich Bergius in 1913. In 1931 Bergius ...

. A small-scale test unit constructed in 1937 had a 100-pound per day continuous coal feed. Between 1945 and 1948, new laboratories were constructed near Pittsburgh. A synthetic ammonia plant Louisiana, Missouri ( Missouri Ordnance Works) was transferred from the Army to the program in 1945. The plant was converted into a coal hydrogenation test facility. By 1949 the plant could produce of oil a day using the Bergius process. Part of the personnel were German scientists, who had been extracted from Germany by Operation Paperclip. In 1948, the program was extended to eight years and funding increased to US$60 million. A second facility was constructed at the Louisiana plant, this time using the Fischer–Tropsch process. Completed in 1951, the plant only produced of fuel. In 1953 the new Republican-led House Appropriations Committee ended funding for the research and the Missouri plant was returned to the

Department of the Army The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the U.S. The Department of the Army is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is org ...

. After the

1973 oil crisis The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...

the need for domestic

syncrude Syncrude Canada Ltd. is one of the world's largest producers of synthetic crude oil from oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. It is located just outside Fort McMurray in the Athabasca Oil Sands, and has a nameplate capaci ...

production (as well as substitute natural gas) was recognized and ERDA (subsequently DOE) embarked on a demonstration plants program, which included plants for the SRC-I and SRC-2 processes. In 1979, after the second oil crisis, the U.S. Congress approved the Energy Security Act forming the Synthetic Fuels Corporation and authorized up to $88 million for synthetic fuels projects. This program focused on implementation of commercially available processes such as Lurgi gasification of lignite and Texaco gasification of coal to feed a gas turbine/combined cycle electric generating system. In 1986, following the

1985 oil glut The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, President Reagan signed into law the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 which among other things abolished the Synthetic Fuels Corporation. It is estimated that over 40 years the cost of the various efforts at creating synthetic fuels may have totaled as much as $8 billion. {{citation needed, date=January 2014

References

The Early Days of Coal Research
at the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...

site.
You Don’t Need Oil To Make Fuel

Review on Oil shale data

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060528211758/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1167738,00.html A magic way to make billions(TIME Magazine, February 2006)
CRS Report for Congress Oil Shale: History, Incentives, and Policy
United States federal energy legislation Synthetic fuels United States Bureau of Mines

History

See also

References