The WITS COMPS Fischer Tropsch Process

The WITS COMPS Fischer Tropsch Process
Alternative Fuels Corporation will be partnering with The University of Witwatersrand Centre of Material and Process Synthesis, to build plants that produce liquid fuels from any viable carbon source, with the following benefits:

• 30% less CO2 than traditional Fischer Tropsch plants.
• Clean burning diesel and other fuels that contain no sulfur, no particulates and no aromatics
• 80 year old proven technology
• An initial capital requirement that is a fraction of traditional Fischer Tropsch plants.
• Option of co-generation. This is particularly important when municipal waste is the input.
• Overall lower capital cost per barrel
• Scalable plant funded from cash flow
• Coal, underground coal gasification, natural gas and biomass are all suitable inputs
• Much lower requirements for water

As Blood is to the Human Body, so Oil is to the Economy

Soaring energy costs are about to change everything.

Oil perfuses every aspect of our economy and provides us with the standard of living we have all become so used to. Just as our bodies would cease to function with a lesser blood flow, a modern economy with less oil will grind to a halt.

It is a critical input in the production and delivery of every aspect of our daily lives. An average family of 4 uses 1077 gallons of gasoline each year to run the family car, but not so obviously, they also consume 930 gallons in the production, processing and delivery of the food they eat.

In fact all the things to which we owe our standard of living, would be severely reduced or would become incredibly expensive. You won’t be able to live, travel or eat as we do now.

And right now we are consuming more oil than we produce. How long can it last?

The World Has an Unquenchable and Addictive Thirst for Oil
There’s no question that the future will be different, things are changing fast. But one of the biggest changes is the belief that commodity prices will return to what they were 2 or 3 years ago. Most experts now believe that the days of cheap oil are gone.

Unfortunately the world is addicted to oil. But because we use energy for almost everything we do from making a phone call, to driving to work, to cooking a meal to watching TV, we’ll never have enough energy.

What’s more, countries like the US and Canada do not have alternative infrastructure like Europe does, so we are dependent on cars and as yet there are no viable alternatives to gasoline and diesel.

The New Economies
The economies of countries like China, India and Russia are rapidly developing large numbers of middle class citizens. These people all aspire to the life style they see in the west.

It is estimated that China will be the world’s biggest economy within 10 years, India will be in second place in 15 years and the USA will not be far behind and one thing is certain, this kind of growth will strain all of our natural resources, but none more than oil.

China had 5.5 million cars on the road in 2007 up from 1.6 million in 1997 and will add a million cars per year to the roads until 2015. Last year the number of cars on India’s roads increased by 12.7% to 1.5 million and this trend is expected to accelerate as more and more of India’s citizens enter middle class.

Both countries expect their oil imports to double as a result. Even more important is the fact that there is a growing middle class of 100’s of millions more in the oil exporting countries and they will want cars too, making it more difficult for these countries to export as much as they currently do. It is expected that in 2008 the emerging markets combined will consume more oil than the United States.

The bottom line: The earth’s population is forecasted to grow by 50% by 2050 and the number of trucks and cars will double to 2 billion within 30 years and all will need fuel and energy.

Peak Oil and Flat Production
The jury is no longer out, most experts agree that Peak Oil is real. We are not discovering new oil wells at anything like the pace needed to keep abreast of demand. Production in major oil producing countries like Mexico and Russia is falling and even the most profitable company in the world, Exxon has not been able to pump more to keep up with the rising prices.

Experts estimate that every year producers will have to find an additional 3 -3.5 million barrels per day, just to offset the declines.

This means that we will be unable to keep up with demand as our population grows, as a result a continuing rise in oil prices and at the pumps is inevitable.

All green alternatives for transportation, such as fuel cells and battery operated cars are currently years from reality and often the energy used starts as a fossil fuel. For example electric cars require electricity generated, mostly for fossil fuels.

Now is the time to find a solution and to be creative when it comes to alternative fuels, if we wait any longer, it may be too late. There is no magic bullet and all contributions are needed.