Sasol's Potential Climate Solution

[Thom Little]

SASOLBURG, South Africa -- During the Apartheid era, Sasol was the Afrikaner Parastatal synthetic fuel organization and a bastion of the nationalist state. Since it had no competition and was essentially pushing against the market, I was surprised to find that it has developed a viable partial solution to the carbon dioxide/climate conundrum, as well as providing some of the cleanest fuels on the market.

Set in the geographically unremarkable Sasolburg in the industrial heartland, Sasol's synthetic fuels arm was first developed when war and then isolation due to apartheid forced South Africa's best chemists to turn coal into liquid fuel. Sasol (The South African Synthetic Fuels Ltd), was so important to energy requirements that since there was nothing much in the location before the town was founded to house workers it was named after the company (or Parastatal as South African Government companies are known).

Now as fuel security becomes more important globally, with concerns about Middle Eastern instability, the recklessness of Hugo Chavez in oil-rich Venezuela, and expanding demand from China and India, the previously uneconomic coal-to-liquid-fuel process is increasingly attracting admirers.

Not least of the new suitors is the coal-rich State of Montana, where corporate interests are deep in discussions about a joint venture with Sasol. If the current price of oil is sustained, the technology certainly has great export potential for the South Africans. Coal-rich China is also apparently investing in the technology, and Sasol has already joined in partnerships with Qatar and Nigeria. It is possible that even with lower oil prices (anything above $25 per barrel, say South African experts) the technology may still be exportable and of high value since Sasol is coy about how much the process actually costs.


http://www.techcentralstation.com/112105D.html

[phantom power]

1. Turning coal into fuel does exactly nothing to solve any climate problems.

It's still taking fossil hydrocarbons and burning them to realease CO2. In this case, with the added benefit of encouraging us to continue leveling the tops of the Appalachians and using the waste to fill up our river valleys.

[phantom power]

2. I'm curious about the "recklessness of Hugo Chavez."

What's he been doing that is "reckless?" Or is this yet another instance of Americans accusing any other sovereign nation who isn't falling all over themselves to sell us their oil of "recklessness?"

[donsu]

3. nor did I like the writer saying Chavez was reckless

nt