Synthetic Fuel

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121205200216.htm

Synthetic Fuel; The Answer to Our Fuel Problem

This article is about finding an alternative fuel source for the future because eventually we are going to run out of oil and our country runs off of oil. Without oil the country will go to the dumps and we won't have a lot of luxuries such as cars. A team of Researchers from Princeton have possibly found an alternative source other than oil. The source is synthetic fuel made by a combination of coal, natural gas, and non-food crops. The chemistry behind this is beyond complicated but this could eventually be the answer we have been looking for another source of fuel. The only way that we could use this type of fuel could be our main source of fuel is if we gradually start becoming dependent on this and ease off of using oil. This process could take 30-40 years before it could become a main source. Synthetic fuel is an easy fit for transportation because it can directly go into automobile engines and are identical to fuels refined from oil. The creation of Synthetic fuel is extremely complicated with taking carbon and hydrogen from the feed stock and reassembling them into complex chains that make up fuels like diesel. They heat the feed stock up to about 1000 degrees Celsius and convert it to gas, the converted gas is then converted to hydrocarbon molecules. The hydrocarbon molecules are then processed over catalysts such as nickel and iron, and this results in fuels, waxes and lubricants made up of what oil would make. Synthetic fuel is definitely an answer to our need of another source after oil, but the problem is that we are in such a bad economic crises that we cannot afford to start making this transition because this will only further the debt that we are in, but eventually we are going to have to turn to something other than oil and synthetic fuel made out of coal, natural gas and non-food crops sounds like a pretty good alternative to me. An article related to synthetic fuel and the process of making it is 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081020093404.htm