Syngas is the fuel of the future

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Not all countries are rich in natural resources. And if the lack of own gold mines or diamond mines can simply be frustrating, then the presence of hydrocarbon deposits often becomes a matter of the viability of the state, especially during a war period. Germany acquired rich experience in the production of ersatz (substitutes) in the first half of the twentieth century.

Already in 1915, German submarines put Britain in an extremely difficult position, preventing the supply of "blood of war" to the islands. During the Second World War, Germany found itself in an equally difficult situation, especially after the loss of the Romanian oil fields. It seemed a little more, and capitulation was inevitable. Tanks, planes, ships and submarines will not be able to take part in hostilities, they will have nothing to refuel, but the war continued for many long months. Coal, which was mined a lot in the Reich, turned out to be a suitable raw material for the production of synthetic hydrocarbons, the main of which was synthesis gas.

Brilliantly trained and talented German scientists long before the war began to develop this issue. Franz Fischer, head of the Kaiser InstituteWilhelm, back in 1926 published a scientific work on the direct synthesis of hydrocarbons at atmospheric pressure, not only proving this possibility, but also substantiating its technological availability. Synthesis gas was produced by the hydrogen reduction reaction of CO in the presence of catalytic agents, such as a mixture of zinc oxide with iron or chromium oxide with cob alt, taking place at a temperature of 270 degrees Celsius. Such a process made it possible to obtain gaseous, liquid and solid methane homologues.

On the footage of the chronicle of war times, you can sometimes see a gas car running on … wood. Yes, the generator that fed the engine with a combustible mixture was relatively compact, and to set the car in motion, it was enough to take an ax and head to the nearest forest.

The chemical combination of carbon monoxide and H2 hydrogen molecules, that is, synthesis gas, can be carried out not only from coal, but also from any carbon-containing feedstock. The process was called the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, after the names of the inventors. At the time of its publication, there were other ways to obtain organic fuel from coal, bypassing synthesis gas. In the same Germany, Bergius received gasoline from coal in 1911, but the process technology was incomparably more complicated.

Like earlier work, this achievement was the result of a solution to the problem faced by industrialized and militarily developed countries without access to natural hydrocarbons.

In the post-war years, the production of synthesis gas temporarily lost its relevance. Interest in this technology was revived in the early 1970s, when the so-called "oil crisis" arose as a result of the concerted increase in oil prices by OPEC countries.

Without a doubt, the experience of obtaining hydrocarbons from raw materials will become more and more in demand as natural resources are depleted, especially oil and gas, the importance of which as a raw material for the chemical industry is still underestimated today. Once D. I. Mendeleev compared their use as energy sources with the burning of banknotes.