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Alternatives to crude sought Posted: Sun, 21 May 2006 [miningmx.com] -- WITH the oil price currently so high, alternatives to crude oil are being sought worldwide. Apart from electric motors, which will probably only become a more viable option over the long term, sources for fuels are limited to crude oil, natural gas, coal and ethanol. Crude oil is by far the cheapest raw material to produce fuels. It's distilled into different products at refineries and consists of the so-called white liquids, which include petrol, diesel and paraffin, and then other by-products, such as heavy oils and types of washing /cleaning products. Gas-to-liquid plants are other viable options. Rudi Heydenrich, MD of Sasol's Synfuels International division, says that natural gases are removed from the earth in different ways and then processed to obtain "clean" gas by separating ethane and other gases, such as liquid paraffin gas, from it. The clean gas is then put through the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert carbons and hydrogen by means of a catalyst into fuels, largely diesel and naphthene. The diesel is of a very high quality, as it contains very few sulphur particles (fewer than five particles/m). Sasol has become famous for its coal-from-liquid technology. It's considerably more expensive than the options for which crude oil and gas are used, but in the current high oil price environment it's both viable and profitable. The process is made expensive because it's more difficult to convert coal into clean gas before it can be put through the Fischer-Tropsch process. A further disadvantage of coal is that it's a major pollutant. High levels of carbon dioxide are released during the process, and this makes it less attractive for countries with strict environmental legislation, such as the US. However, technology to curb pollution is improving, Heydenrich says. The least viable alternative seems to be the ethanol option. However, Ethanol Africa - which is in the process of building an ethanol plant at Bothaville - believes it's viable. The company has announced plans to obtain £100m on the London alternative exchange (AIM) to assist building two plants for around R650m each. Ironically, the profitability is inversely related to the availability of resources. Heydenrich says that there's about 40 years of exploitable crude oil available (apart from the so-called sand fields). In addition, there are about 70 years of natural gas left - and considerably more than 160 years of coal to produce fuels. Ethanol consists of sugar cane, maize and plant material with a high energy content - and it can, of course, continue to be planted.
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