Liquid Fuels from Coal

It is now possible by selecting appropriate reaction conditions to use ruthenium on alumina catalysts to produce economically viable ranges of gasoline and diesel fractions from the synthesis gas produced by coal gasification. Recent work has shown that simultaneous use of ruthenium with an intermediate pore zeolite produces high octane gasoline. The activity and selectivity achievable with ruthenium are compared and contrasted with results from systems based on iron and cobalt catalysts which have already achieved commercial significance.