Landscape view of coal mining mountain top removal at Hazelwood Gippsland

Coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology is, in essence, two dirty forms of energy combined into one -- the significant impacts and hazards of coal mining are added to the environmental and climate damage caused by burning liquid fuels.

How does coal-to-liquids technology work?

There are two different methods for converting coal into liquid fuels:

1. In direct liquefaction, the coal is dissolved in a solvent at a high temperature and pressure. This process is highly efficient, but the liquid products require further refining into high-grade fuel.

2. The indirect liquefaction method gasifies the coal to form a "syngas" -- a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The syngas is then condensed to produce higher-quality fuel products.

Where is coal-to-liquids technology used?

Even though the United States has the world’s largest coal reserves, South Africa has been leading the world in new coal technologies. In fact, South Africa has been producing coal-derived fuels since 1955 and has the only commercial coal-to-liquids industry in operation today, which meets around 30% of the country’s gasoline and diesel needs. In the past year, the U.S. government has been considering legislation that will heavily subsidize the CTL industry, and other large countries such as China are also planning to develop large-scale CTL programs.

Why is coal-to-liquids technology dirty?

Coal-to-liquid technology is a step backward in our fight to control greenhouse gases. With CTL, there are actually two streams of carbon emissions:

1. At the production plant producing the liquid.
2. From the vehicle burning the liquid as fuel.

The total "well-to-wheels" emissions are therefore much higher from CTL than regular petroleum. A study from Argonne National Laboratory, a research arm of the Department of Energy, shows that every gallon of liquid fuel produced from coal generates as much as 2.5 times the global warming emissions as every gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel from crude oil.

In addition to the increase in emissions, replacing just 10% of liquid petroleum with fuel from CTL would increase coal mining by 43%. Coal mining has already destroyed landscapes and watersheds across the U.S. and elsewhere, and generated significant air and water pollution -- not to mention the significant health and safety risks to the miners themselves. For areas with current coal development and new proposals, this means increased air and water pollution by almost 50% in the coming years.

For More Information

• Natural Resources Defense Council:

  Group concerned with resource conservation discusses the economic and environmental impacts of the coal-to-liquids production.

• Washington Post:

  News article discussing the current and proposed U.S. policy(s) on coal-to-liquid production.

• U.S. Department of Energy:

  Report that concludes that current coal-to-liquids synthesis processes are "environmentally and economically untenable for any new expansions."

• Think Progress:

  Graph depicting the increase to greenhouse gases by switching from petroleum fuel to alternatives including coal-to-liquids.

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