Synthetic Fuels are liquid or gaseous fuels that are used as an excellent alternative to gasoline and natural gas. They are derived from a variety of sources like coal, tar, biomass etc. As the demand for fuel is increasing there is more extraction from the natural sources and consequently faster depletion of the same. Synthetic fuels offer to be an excellent solution for this problem of depleting energy resources. Some of the important synthetic fuels that are industrially produced are Methanol, ethanol, hydrazine, synthetic Hydrogen, etc. Let us look into two main methods of producing synthetic fuels before discussing their advantages and disadvantages.
Fischer- Tropsh Method
One of the important laboratory methods of producing synthetic fuel is the Fischer- Tropsh method. This method is actually a reduction of carbon monoxide. Two German scientists named Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch developed this method. This process essentially involves a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide reacting in the presence of cobalt catalyst at high temperature and 5-10 atmospheric pressure....
A similar method, called gas-to-liquids (GTL), which also uses the FT process, is receiving a lot of attention these days. In this method, natural gas is used as the feedstock. Waste or natural gas that cannot be marketed is partially oxidized into CO and H2 gases. This synthesis gas is then supplied to a synthesis unit to similarly produce a liquid fuel. The development of synthetic jet fuels to augment
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