Classification and Principles
The term 'synthetic fuel' has several different meanings and it may include different types of fuels. More traditional definitions, e.g. definition given by the International Energy Agency, define 'synthetic fuel' as any liquid fuel obtained from coal or natural gas. The Energy Information Administration defines synthetic fuels in its Annual Energy Outlook 2006, as fuels produced from coal, natural gas, or biomass feedstocks through chemical conversion into synthetic crude and/or synthetic liquid products. A number of synthetic fuel's definitions include also fuels produced from biomass, and industrial and municipal waste. The definition of synthetic fuel may also consist of oil sands and oil shale as synthetic fuel's sources and in addition to liquid fuels also gaseous fuels are covered. On his 'Synthetic fuels handbook' a petrochemist James G. Speight included liquid and gaseous fuels as well as clean solid fuels produced by conversion of coal, oil shale or tar sands, and various forms of biomass, although he admits that in the context of substitutes for petroleum-based fuels it has even wider meaning. Depending the context, also methanol, ethanol and hydrogen may be included.
Synthetic fuels are produced by the chemical process of conversion. Conversion methods could be direct conversion into liquid transportation fuels, or indirect conversion, in which the source substance is converted initially into syngas which then goes through additional conversion process to become liquid fuels. Basic conversion methods include carbonization and pyrolysis, hydrogenation, and thermal dissolution.
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