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A Student's Guide to Alternative Fuel Vehicles
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Liquids Made From Coal
- gasoline and diesel fuels that don't come from petroleum
Not All Gasoline comes from Petroleum
Like oil and natural gas, coal is a non-renewable, fossil fuel formed
in the earth from what was once living plants. Being a solid, coal is not easy to
use for most transportation fuel needs.
However, there are ways to make gasoline, diesel fuel, methanol, and other chemicals
from coal. These processes have been used for many years in certain other countries
(such as South Africa), to produce gasoline and diesel fuel from coal.
The methods to produce gasoline and diesel from coal were used by the Germans
in World War II. Their country is rich in coal deposits, but they had no oil and
they could not get oil from the Middle East because they were cut off during
the war. So, sythetic fuels (oil, gasoline and diesel) were made from coal.
These processes can be used today, but the process is too expensive. It is cheaper
to use inexpensive crude oil pumped from below the ground.
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