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Gasification is almost a reality right now. The Federal Office of Coal Research has helped to sponsor four pilot plants, and eight more are planned. Each uses a different system, but all are based on a complicated process that was pioneered in Germany in 1936. The technique starts by breaking down water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is combined in the presence of heat with the carbon in pulverized coal to produce methane, the main ingredient of natural gas.
Trouble is, this synthetic product does not have as high a heating value as natural gas. So another step is needed to upgrade it. Total cost is great; a pilot plant runs about $20 million, and a full-scale plant turning out 100 million cu. ft. a day will cost an estimated $200 million. But that is less expensive than liquefying and importing natural gas. Nearly every major coal company has joined with gas companies in plans to build gasification plants on Western coal fields by the late 1970s.
Further along on the horizon are schemes to produce synthetic crude oil from coal. Several experiments are under way, of which the F.M.C. Corp.'s pilot plant is farthest along. As in gasification, the process begins by grinding coal into fine particles and then heating them in hot vessels. When hydrogen is added, the coal particles dissolve, becoming both good quality oil and gas. Again, the cost is high. But the interest of both industry and Government in coal is even higher. If all goes well, that dirty, difficult material will once more be the U.S.'s king of fuels.