# How good Is Modern Synthetic Gasoline?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-modern-synthetic-gasoline/568402>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 21, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-modern-synthetic-gasoline/568402 "2011-01-21T01:33:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-modern-synthetic-gasoline/568402/1 "2011-01-21T01:33:56Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-modern-synthetic-gasoline/568402/2 "2011-01-21T01:35:25Z")

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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.