Economy, environment and energy life-cycle comp arison among several synfuel routes

摘要

The future of fuel production via C_1 chemistry is discussed in this paper. Four different processes from coal or natural gas to methanol or gasoline are compared with the present commercialized process from crude oil to gasoline on the aspects of economics, environmental friendliness and energy. Considering the future trend of curde oil price, it is believed that C_1 chemical technologies, especially indirect conversion technologies, will become economically feasible by the year of 2030. Possible ways to improve the economy of synfuels are discussed.