Reply #13: Yes. Interesting Reuters article on this today [View All]

[Ghost Dog]

right here: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2006-04-21T090655Z_01_NOA132477_RTRUKOC_0_ANALYSIS-LIQUID-COAL.xml

...Industrial giant China is leading the way and others may follow since oil has hit records above $70 on strained supplies that may last around 40 years, whereas the world may have ample coal for a couple of hundred years if it can be converted to clean fuels cheaply enough.

"In the light of very high oil prices and slowing coal prices, coal-to-liquids technologies are becoming a burning issue in developing Asia and the United States," said Alexandre Kervinio of SG Commodities.

China's largest coal producer Shenhua Group Corp. and South Africa's Sasol say their coal-to-liquids technology is worthwhile if oil stays above $30 or $35 a barrel, half its current price. New York oil futures for December 2012 delivery are above $66.

High oil prices have also made clean renewable energies such as wind competitive, but these cannot deliver liquid fuel to power cars. Biofuels are booming but are likely to remain limited in volume, and a wide network of hydrogen gas filling stations for fuel cell vehicles is not considered viable before 2020.

However, other technologies such as coal gasification and gas-to-liquids (GTL) are currently cheaper than coal liquefaction and so firms worried about a downturn in oil prices and seeking the best investment returns may opt for those instead.

<snip>

The United States is building a fleet of new coal power plants to use the world's largest reserves, but only a fraction will gasify coal and have the ability to capture emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming.

However, the U.S. government is hoping to wean itself off Middle East oil dependency and is providing tax and loan incentives. This has spurred five projects expected to be onstream by 2010, said SG Commodities.

"Converting just 5 percent of the U.S. coal reserves to Fisher-Tropsch fuels would equate to the existing U.S. crude reserves of 29 billion barrels," said a spokesman for Canadian company Syntroleum, refering to liquefaction technology.

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