Coal to Liquids: A Very Good Idea

Coal to liquids, or CTL, is an idea that goes back to the 1800s. Coal gas -- or syngas -- was widely used to power street lamps before electricity and natural gas came into wide use. And it is only a few short catalytic steps from syngas to liquid fuel, courtesy of Mssrs Fischer and Tropsch.

Along with biomass to liquid (BTL), CTL promises to provide a price ceiling for liquid hydrocarbons that will infuriate the oil tyrants of Russia, Venezuela, Iran, and the Arab muslim oil tyrannies. Who else doesn't like CTL? The dieoff.org faux environmental movement -- the anti human elitists such as Gore, Romm, Holdren, Ehrlich, Pianka, Green Pieces and the rest. Those idiots want to starve the Earth of energy so as to get the planet's population below 100 million persons. They are assuming that they will be among the 100 million. Bad assumption.

But about CTL:

One key advantage of gasification is that, in addition to generating power, the intermediate product -- synthesis gas, or syngas -- can be used to produce power, liquid fuels or valuable chemicals. This allows this type of power plant to "diversify" its product line and supply high-value peak power and switch to synfuels or chemical production when power demand is low. Perhaps this type of plant would be a useful complement when power from renewables is interrupted.

Additionally, the reactor produces about 75% diesel fuel, which trades at a premium due to its higher energy content. The coal-to-liquids (CTL) process is well established with Sasol (ticker: SSL) in South Africa, where it is responsible for 30% of that country's liquid fuel supply; hence we feel the technology will survive the downturn in the economy. We feel this tried-and-tested alternative source of fuels is a reliable backstop, should the early promise of some of the newer energy sources not be delivered.

Economies of scale in CTL have required large, expensive plants. Sasol has focused on plants capable of producing 50,000 barrels per day of product, which are expensive and, after the credit crisis, difficult to finance. However, Rentech (RTK) is looking at much smaller biomass-to-liquids projects which could be economic on smaller scale, assuming financial support for new environmentally friendly technologies. _Barrons

The Obama administration is infested with dieoff.org elitists who want to choke the world's population down via energy starvation -- beginning with the US and Europe and going on from there. They are so stupid, that they don't understand that once the US and Europe are gone, none of the rest of the world believes in the fantasy global warming catastrophe religion. So all their work will be for nothing, as the rest of the world simply fires up their coal, oil, gas, peat, shale, bitumen, or whatever other fuel may be handy to stave off the cold and cook their food.

The Clown President Obama (and his corrupt retinue) is fixated on carbon dioxide -- a harmless plant food. In order to reduce the levels of CO2, Obama's minions are willing to go to any lengths including driving the US into a depression beyond recovery, at least for generations. They are committed to what they see as a righteous cause, but which is actually a fool's delusion.

But they won, they won. The zombies elected a leader and expect the world to change as a result. And it will. But not in a good way.