Synthesis gas is the fuel of the future

Not all countries are rich in natural resources. And if the absence of own gold mines or diamond mines can simply upset, the presence of hydrocarbon deposits often becomes a matter of the viability of the state, especially in the war period. In the first half of the twentieth century Germany acquired a vast experience in the production of ersatz (substitutes).

Already in 1915 the German submarines put Britain in an extremely difficult position, preventing the supply of "blood of war" to the islands. During the Second World War, Germany was in no less serious situation, especially after the loss of the Romanian oil fields. It seemed a little more, and capitulation is inevitable. Tanks, planes, ships and submarines will not be able to take part in hostilities, they will have nothing to fill, but the war continued for many long months. Coal, which was extracted a lot in the Reich, proved to be a suitable raw material for the production of synthetic hydrocarbons, the main of which was synthesis gas.

Brilliantly trained and talented German scientists long before the war began to develop this issue. Franz Fischer, who headed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, published in 1926 a scientific paper on the direct synthesis of hydrocarbons at atmospheric pressure, not only proving this possibility, but also justifying its technological accessibility. Synthesis gas was obtained as a result of the hydrogen reduction reaction of CO in the presence of catalytic substances, such as a mixture of zinc oxide with iron or chromium oxide with cobalt, passing at a temperature of 270 degrees Celsius. Such a process made it possible to obtain gaseous, liquid and solid homologues of methane.

On the shots of the chronicles of wartime, you can sometimes see a gas car working on ... firewood. Yes, the generator, feeding the engine with a combustible mixture, was relatively compact, and to drive the car, it was enough to take an ax and go to the nearest forest.

The chemical compound of carbon monoxide and hydrogen H2 molecules, that is, synthesis gas, can be carried out not only from coal, but also from any carbonaceous feedstock. The process was called the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, after the names of the inventors. At the time of its publication, there were other ways of obtaining organic fuel from coal, bypassing synthesis gas. In the same Germany, Bergius received gasoline from coal in 1911, but the process technology was incomparably more complicated.

Like earlier work, this achievement was the result of solving the problem faced by industrialized and militarily developing countries that do not have access to natural hydrocarbons.

In the postwar years, the receipt of synthesis gas temporarily lost its relevance. Interest in this technology resumed in the early seventies of the twentieth century, when the so-called "oil crisis" arose, resulting from the agreed increase in oil prices by the OPEC countries.

Undoubtedly, the experience of obtaining hydrocarbons from raw materials will become increasingly in demand as natural resources deplete, especially oil and gas, whose value as raw material for the chemical industry is still underestimated today. Once DI Mendeleev compared their use as sources of energy with the burning of bank notes.