The Germans produced synthetic gasoline, wht do we not do it now?

Answer 1

Expense

Currently it is cheaper to pull the oil out of the ground than to try and manufacture it. Germany had to resort to that because its sources of oil were cut off.

Now days some oil wells that were long abandoned and thought of as dry are being pumped again. When oil costs $40 a barrel those old oil wells become marketable again. Some day it may be more economical to manufacture oil, but it will still require natural resources to get the hydrocarbons to make the oil. This is why Bush keeps saying that Americans have an addiction to oil. I don’t agree with most of his policies, but you have to agree with this statement.

Last year gasoline got up to over 3$ per gallon and it did not stop the American thirst for oil. This summer it is going to get there again, but this year some Americans are trying to economize and reduce their oil consumption, but it is hardly enough. For every two people that buy a hybrid or take fewer trips, one person wipes it out with his hummer or by driving too fast.

Soon, not too many summers from now, gasoline will reach over 4$ a gallon and then what? If we don’t change soon then we are going to keep paying the price and it will just increase. That high price we pay for oil doesn’t just hit us in the gas tank. Most of our goods are transported by truck so high gasoline prices increase the cost of everything else. Meanwhile the cost to the environment is getting worse. Even if you don’t believe in global warming the known problems of pollution and the problems it creates have been known and studied for years. They are still harming us and the environment.

Answer 2

Because the Fischer-Tropsch method is very expensive. The high capital costs, high operation and maintenance costs, and the fact that it is NOT environmentally friendly have kept it used for only specific applications. The FT process requires either coal or natural gas as a feedstock. There is an enormous increase in primary energy use and carbon emissions inherent in conversion of gaseous and solid carbon sources to a usable liquid form, assuming the energy used to drive the process comes from burning coal or hydrocarbon fuels. So you get some gas or deisel out, but wind up using more energy to produce it than you get out while polluting more than you would if you had just drilled for oil and refined it. The Germans used it because all their crude oil supplies were cut off, and South Africa did for a while as well when they were isolated due to apartheid. But it's simply not viable for the amounts you're talking about, either economically or thermodynamically.

Answer 3

Like germans ,indians r also on the verge of producing synthetic gasoline having only 5% alcoholic content. for this India start practising ENEGY CROPING like EUPHORBIA CAE species of plants

Answer 4

Its all about the money. Everything is really. The truth is, even if synthetics were as efficient and as cost effective, we are going to use fossil fuels until every last usable and retrievable molecule is gone.

Answer 5

Because (in spite of what most whiny Americans think) gasoline is still DIRT cheap compared with synthetic alternatives!

Answer 6

Likely producing the synthetic isn't cost effective or scalable to something industrial with enough to support the population, or even produce enough to make it worthwhile.

Answer 7

that technique used vast amounts of coal. coal is a highly polluting form of energy and there are fewer coal reserves in the world. coal would not be able to meet the demands in america and would be very polluting. we already use coal to generate large amounts of electricity and run many factories.
petroleaum in comparison is very abundant. i doubt even ethanol can be relied upon completely, maximum is mixing ethanol with petroleum. natural gas is used for heating homes, not trmendous supply to turn into gasoline.
we use sooo much gasoline not just for driving cars but also for the production of plastic and many more petroleum related products.

Answer 8

Well, if you are willing to pay US$10 per gallon for the synthetic stuff (which is about what it would cost), then go for it!

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