The status of synthetic liquid fuel development in Australia

Australia has a high consumption of liquid fuels, 40% of which is imported. Indigenous oil will have a useful life only to the end of the present century, but proven coal reserves are abundant and growing. The energy resource of shale is at least as large as that of coal. Following the OPEC price rises of 1973-74, many research and development projects in coal, shale and biomass liquefaction started. Most work was at the laboratory scale, but now a 50 ton/day plant to produce SRC and liquid fuels from brown coal is under construction. This paper gives the results of recent cost analyses of synthetic liquid fuel production, and some emphasis to new research on advanced methods of producing synthetic liquid fuels.