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8740776 
Journal Article 
Feasibility study of conversion of coal into synfuel 
Palvannan, V; Rajesh, S; Mariannan, R 
2019 
28 
19 
222-236 
English 
India is the third largest consumer of crude oil in the world, after the United States and China. India accounted 4.8% of total world oil consumption in 2016-17. The estimated total consumption of crude oil in India rose from 156.1 million tons in 2007-08 to 245.4 million tons in 2016-17 . Petroleum oil consumption in India is ever increasing at an average rate of 8% per annum in the past five years. With inadequate crude oil reserves, India is heavily dependent on imports. The problem of the rising cost of fuel and consumption are obstacle for country’s development due to outflow of money resulting in trade deficit adversely affecting Rupee exchange rate for $. Nevertheless, India ranks 2nd in the coal production after it surpassed USA and Russia in terms of volume and 4th in terms of Energy ( tons of crude oil equivalent) due to high ash content in the Indian coal in the range of 8-17% by weight. Further, India has huge reserves of coal which is sufficient for 400 years consumption. Dwindling oil reserves in the world and abundance of coal necessitates synthetic oil which can be used in Engines. This paper focuses on the feasibility of conversion of coal to synthetic fuel, production methods and utilization as an alternative fuel. The economics of synthetic fuel is compared to the petroleum products produced from crude oil. The feasibility method compared are Karrick and Fischer-Tropsch. Karrick process is an hydrogenisation process of coal at high pressure and high temperature for direct production of synthetic fuel without gasification stage. In Fischer Tropsch process coal is fully gasified after mixing with steam to form Gas. This Synthetic Gas is further processed to produce synthetic fuel known as Synfuel. The paper also deals with the suitability of these technologies to Indian conditions. The final conclusion based on the above analysis is that, based on the energy content, Coal is suitable for conversion to synfuel using both the processes. The tendency of many oil companies investing billions of dollars in the synthetic oil projects indicates that the Synfuel option is inevitable in the future since the existing automobile and aviation sectors with their infra-structure can be used as it is without any modification compared to the option of bi-fuel and flexible fuel vehicle / hybrid options which call for a significant amount of additional investment by the end user. © 2019 SERSC.