If you had never heard of the term Fischer Tropsch, you belong to the vast majority.
But if you are a scientist or an engineer, it is likely that you soon hear of it more often.
Because the Fischer Tropsch process (FT for short) can enable the conversion of ordinary stuff like wood, organic waste, even CO2 - pretty much anything converting carbon and hydrogen - into gasoline, diesel, kerosene, you name the liquid fuel and FT can get it for you.
Is this magic?
Actually, no. It's thermochemistry.
The FT process essentially starts with what is called the synthesis gas (a mixture of CO and H2) and under certain combinations of temperature and pressure, and under the influence of select catalysts, the constituents undergo chemical reations that convert them into a range of liquid fuels.
It is possible to generate synthesis gas from a wide range of feedstock - solid waste, industrial waste, biomass waste, or CO2 emissions. This stage can be a bit tricky depending on the actual feedstock used. But, once you have syngas, you are there - Fischer and Tropsch are there to take you a fairly smooth journey.
If you thought Messrs Fischer & Tropsch invented this alchemy in silicon valley a couple of years back - Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch invented and stabilized this at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Germany in///1925, that's almost a 100 years back.
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