1 step forward 2 steps back?
America’s quest for energy independence has, in recent years, provided much impetus for the development of green technologies. American politicians don’t like relying on foreign oil and environmentalists don’t like relying on any oil, so both parties had a good reason to encourage the development of renewable energy sources. This convenient symbiosis may not last for long, however, if certain US lawmakers (including Democrat presidential hopeful, Barack Obama) get their way.
The United States has vast reserves of coal which could provide many decades worth of petrol using coal-to-liquids processing. The proposed policy would guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years.
The problem with coal-to-liquid fuels is that they produce almost twice the volume of greenhouse gases as diesel. In addition to the carbon dioxide emitted while using the fuel, the production process creates almost a ton of carbon dioxide for every barrel of liquid fuel. The worst emissions forecasts, given that America replaced their current petroleum and diesel consumption with coal-to-liquids, estimate that US greenhouse gases would increase by 119%. Scary.
Additionally, a recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimates that the construction costs for coal-to-liquid plants are almost four times higher than the costs for comparable petroleum refineries - it would cost $70 billion to build enough plants to replace 10 percent of American gasoline consumption.
This is very relevant to South Africans as SASOL is currently the producer of biggest coal-to-liquids worldwide, using the Fischer-Tropsch process. On SASOL’s site they claim that this is a cleaner technology than tradition petroleum refinement. I haven’t had time to investigate this, but stay tuned for updates.
Source: New York Times
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