As far as I know, South Africa is the only nation to attempt large scale gasoline production from coal (Fischer-Tropsch Process). This was done because the former apartheid government was embargoed by oil exporters.
From what i read, the Germans in WWII made a lot of synthetic gasoline-but the quality was not good (it was rather low octane), and did not work well at low ambient temperatures (it caused lots of problems for the army in Russia).
I am sure that the process has been improved greatly from its invention in the 1920’s-is a modern version a viable source of energy for the US?
We have plenty of coal-would it make sense to start large-scale gasoline production 9using this process0 today?
For the record: Low Octane does not always = ‘not good’. …if it is even lower…
Also, I believe it can be cleaner than oil-based gasoline and is being touted as ‘greener’, although neither is green to begin with.