Boudouard carbon an alternate to gasoline and diesel oil

Past efforts to convert coal to mobile motor fuel have been largely confined to making gasoline or diesel oil. This conversion necessarily involves the conversion of much carbon into equivalent hydrogen which is wasteful and expensive. An alternate thesis is presented in this paper. It is divided into two parts: A scheme for the preparation of Boudouard carbon is developed and discussed. It can be made in high yield in a relatively economical Coal to Carbon + Electricity Refinery, and It is shown that when the necessary research and development work has been accomplished, Boudouard carbon is potentially an effective and efficient mobile motor fuel for the diesel and the Otto‐cycle engines. Comparisons are drawn with the Sasol plant in South Africa, where coal is converted to gasoline‐diesel fuel by hydrogenation techniques. It is shown that the relative coal consumption on a useful energy‐made basis is 0–5 and that the capital cost would be less than 0–2 in favour of the Coal to Carbon + Electricity alternative. It is concluded that a substantial part of the world's mobile motor fuel could be solid Boudouard carbon made from coal, shale oil, tar‐sand and heavy residual oil as a resource material.