Coal-based synthetic fuels in the United States.

 

In response to the second oil crisis, the United States embarked on a large-scale programme to produce synthetic fuels from coal. In 1980, it had established the Synthetic Fuels Corporation which was to improve technologies and produce 2 million barrels of liquid fuel per day by 1992, at a cost of $60 per barrel, in order to replace about 25 per cent of United States oil imports. Against the backdrop of the collapse of oil prices, the programme was cancelled after five years, with production having reached only 10,000 barrels per day and incurred costs having amounted to $5 billion. Despite its failure to reach its envisaged goals, the programme did develop coal-gasificationtechnologies that paved the way for highly efficient integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal power plants which were deployed around the world from the 1990s.