Syntroleum???

[BigPapa]

I was reading through issue 29 (1999) this morning and ran across an article about a new synthetic fuel made from natural gas called Syntroleum. Everything in the article really sounded good, super clean fuel, no sulphur, burns much cleaner than #2. The article talked about how much natural gas was "vented" or burned off at oil wells around the world and how it could be tapped.



I did a search on it and found an interesting article here:



Syntroleum Transportation Fuel Troubles



from '06. Talks about how they have developed and tested the stuff with the Air Force for use in their plains to cut back their dependance on petroleum fuels. Expense of making it is not as high as some other forms of converting gas or coal to a liquid fuel because they use air instead of oxygen. Everything I can read looked VERY promising.



Seems like this stuff has been pushed under the table by someone somewhere. Didn't know if anyone else remembered it or not.



Scott

 

[JoeBioDiesel]

It sounds like they're talking about FT Diesel, but it's hard to tell. Not enough details. If so, it didn't get pushed under the rug. It's just that, like Biodiesel, there would never be enough of it to displace much of the petroleum diesel we burn. Because it still uses petroleum products to make it, it will always be a little more expensive than petro diesel, so unless you're looking for virtually sulfur free diesel fuel, it's not economically viable at the moment.

Joe