Word: gas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...moon, the creation from scratch of an entirely new industry to produce synthetic fuels would be the most ambitious technical venture that the U.S. has ever undertaken. From outright subsidies to price guarantees, the Government would offer many incentives for private firms to produce oil-like liquids and natural gas from the nation's plentiful coal, shale rock and biomass.* Congressmen are infatuated with the idea of synthetic-fuel production. Cracks Representative Clarence Brown of Ohio: "Every committee in Congress has a synfuel bill, except the Ethics Committee...
...best bet is thought to be production of oil and gas from coal. Carter has set a goal of the equivalent of 1 million to 1.5 million bbl. a day by 1990. The technology is well known. South Africa gets 10% of its oil from coal and expects the total to rise...
...most common process, coal is heated under great pressure to 900° F. As the coal decomposes, it releases oil and gas. Another extraction method, which adds hydrogen to coal that is heated under pressure, will be tested at a small, experimental plant operated by several oil companies in Catlettsburg, Ky. It should be able to convert 600 tons of coal into 1,800 bbl. of oil a day. At a DOE-funded plant in Fort Lewis, Wash., Gulf Oil since 1974 has been testing yet another process called "solvent refined coal," which uses chemicals to remove impurities from...
Another possibility is unconventional gas, which is the same as natural gas, but much harder to extract. It is found under the surface-in the Rocky Mountain region, in the shales of Appalachia, in huge underground caverns stretching below land and sea along the coastlines of Louisiana and east Texas, and in many coal seams all over the country. Because it is costly, the development of unconventional gas had been blocked until natural gas price controls were lifted last year. Now Carter anticipates production to reach the equivalent of 500,000 to 1 million...
...expended just to build the plants, roads, railroads, machines and tools needed to create the synfuels industry-and how much time would pass before the U.S. realized a net energy gain. Simply building the necessary infrastructure will chew up years. Yet the payoff in the form of oil and gas could be so enormous that the U.S. might, some decades hence, become again an exporter of energy. The U.S. has an enormous potential lode of synthetic fuel, and the growing consensus among business and political leaders is that this is the right time to test and exploit...