Previous research on the topic. I don’t know where you’re getting that 10%/20% “efficient” thing from; F-T conversion of coal into liquid hydrocarbons requires roughly 4x the amount of hydrogen that coal has. That’s the reason why CO2 output is so high for F-T process, unless you somehow include large quantities of external hydrogen to the mix, which would bring down the costs of the product significantly (assuming a sufficiently cheap source of hydrogen.)
A traditional plant would never have been profitable, even in 2007 when coal was $40/ton and oil $60/bbl.
“even” ? Sir, you just suggested a patently abysmal set of circumstances for the viability of coal to oil conversion via F-T process. With coal at $40/ton, oil would need to be almost 3x the price you listed before F-T would be economically viable.
So I think your “sustained non-futures prices” disclaimer is not necessary.
It’s entirely necessary because we’re talking about current deliverables. F-T ‘oil’ products would also have to face a futures market as well, as their output would be fungible to oil. The futures market, furthermore, is extremely volatile whereas the fixed deliverable isn’t nearly so much so.
Previous research on the topic. I don’t know where you’re getting that 10%/20% “efficient” thing from; F-T conversion of coal into liquid hydrocarbons requires roughly 4x the amount of hydrogen that coal has. That’s the reason why CO2 output is so high for F-T process, unless you somehow include large quantities of external hydrogen to the mix, which would bring down the costs of the product significantly (assuming a sufficiently cheap source of hydrogen.)
“even” ? Sir, you just suggested a patently abysmal set of circumstances for the viability of coal to oil conversion via F-T process. With coal at $40/ton, oil would need to be almost 3x the price you listed before F-T would be economically viable.
It’s entirely necessary because we’re talking about current deliverables. F-T ‘oil’ products would also have to face a futures market as well, as their output would be fungible to oil. The futures market, furthermore, is extremely volatile whereas the fixed deliverable isn’t nearly so much so.