Abstract
Production of petrol from coal and natural gas. This article assumes an adequate knowledge of the Fischer‐Tropsch process in its original form and as its modern variant, the Synthol process, and adopts the view that coal hydrogenation will only become implementable on an industrial scale in the early 1990. In detail, it considers the integration of the Mobil MTG process in the proven area of methanol production; operation of pilot plant has shown that this process is indeed suitable for industrial scale operation. The production of methanol from natural gas and coal is discussed, as is the subsequent conversion of methanol to petrol; emphasis is placed on the best possible integration of all process plant. Apart from the conventional steam reforming route for methanol production from natural gas, the alternative approach of combing a steam reforming plant with an autothermal cleavage step is also considered; the latter leads to a significant increase in efficiency and a reduction in investment costs. It is also shown for coal as raw material that simultaneous generation of petrol and SNG has considerable advantages of a thermal and financial nature. The principal process steps are described after the manner of keywords and the product costs are presented as functions of the various raw material costs.