Professor Alan Goldman and his Rutgers team in collaboration
with researchers at the University of North Carolina have
invented a new catalytic process that could increase the yield
of a clean form of diesel fuel made from coal. The method uses a
pair of catalysts to improve the yield of diesel fuel from
Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis. The F-T process produces a
mixture of hydrocarbons -- many of which are not useful as fuel.
The low-weight and the high-weight Fischer-Tropsch products are
useful – the light as gas and the medium-heavy as diesel fuel.
The medium-weight products are not useful for much of anything.
Their method uses a pair of catalysts to convert the undesirable
hydrocarbons into diesel. The catalysts work by rearranging the
carbon atoms, transforming six-carbon atom hydrocarbons, for
example, into two- and ten-carbon atom hydrocarbons. The ten-
carbon version can be used to power diesel engines. The first
catalyst removes hydrogen atoms, which allows the second
catalyst to rearrange the carbon