21st Century Hydrocarbon Refinery

The place to end oil dependence¹ is at the oil refinery. The job of the oil refinery is to break-down the crude oil (chemical splitting) at the molecular level, by separating the molecules and then recombining them in such a way that they become useful fuels and chemicals. The refinery only needs a cheap source of hydrocarbon molecules. In the past, crude oil has always been the cheapest source.

When crude oil is selling above $50 per barrel, it would be cheaper to make synthetic fuels from coal or other sources of hydrocarbon molecules, using a technology known as Fischer-Tropsch chemistry — but only if refineries have the technology to “refine” unconventional hydrocarbons and biomass, in addition to petroleum.

As a matter of National Security, the USA needs multi-use refineries that are designed to accept and process multiple types of feedstock: light crude oil, heavy crude oil, coal and biomass. The multi-use capacity must be immediate, in other words, the refinery must be capable of switching from one type of feedstock to another in case of shortage or supply interruption, and make the switchover immediately, not weeks or months later. In this way, the refineries will create competition between suppliers of the various types of feedstock. And, the American people will directly benefit from competition at the supply side of the refining process.

The 21st Century Hydrocarbon Refinery will include petroleum distillation columns along with advanced gasification technology, and be capable of crossover feeds that would take advantage of processes or by-products from one type of feedstock that might add value to another type of feedstock or its process. These new refineries will include Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology to produce electricity; and nuclear thermal energy to provide carbon-free heat for the thermochemical processes within the refinery.

Synthetic fuels—diesel, alcohol and jet fuel—are obtained from synthesis gas, which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules produced by a process involving the gasification of hydrocarbons. Any hydrocarbon source can be used to produce synthesis gas, which then feeds into the Fischer-Tropsch process to obtain synthetic fuels.

When synthesis gas is produced from coal, the synthetic fuels obtained are called CTL (Coal-to-Liquids). When synthesis gas is produced from biomass, the synthetic fuels obtained are called BTL (Biomass-to-Liquid).

¹ dependence: When we speak of oil dependence, in the context of energy independence, we are talking about dependence on foreign governments to supply our nation's oil—which effectively gives those governments control over the U.S. economy as well as influence over U.S. political and legislative outcomes.
Energy independence is not about ending the use of petroleum, nor is it about cooling the climate; energy independence is about cooling the hot heads — the terrorists who depend on Middle-East oil wealth to finance the dissemination of their anti-American, anti-European hate propaganda.

Nexus—Oil and Al Qaeda
   — By Frank H. Denton, PhD, U.S. Foreign Service (Retired)
The Saudi Connection
   — By David E. Kaplan  U.S.News & World Report
Saudis remain the world’s prime source of terror financing
   — By Josh Meyer,  Los Angeles Times  April 2, 2008
“Saudi Arabia remains the world's leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow... the Saudi government has not taken important steps to go after those who finance terrorist organizations or to prevent wealthy donors from bankrolling extremism through charitable contributions, sometimes unwittingly. Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and to the Taliban than any other place in the world.
 ...Americans who pay more than $100 a barrel for oil are in effect bankrolling extremism because wealthy Saudis “back-door” their profits into charities that fund extremist causes.”