An early draft of a new report from America’s National Academy of Sciences (NAS) urges the federal government to ramp up funding to support the development and deployment of technologies that can help transform coal into liquid transportation fuels. The report, Liquid Transportation Fuels from Coal and Biomass, concluded that the abundance of coal and biomass in the US make both of them “attractive candidates to provide non-oil-based liquid fuels for the US transportation system.”

“Alternative liquid transportation fuels from coal and biomass have the potential to play an important role on helping the US to address issues of energy security, supply diversification and greenhouse gas emissions,” NAS said.

Ultimately, the report predicts that coal-to-liquid (CTL) plants could replace up to 3 million barrels of gasoline equivalent per day by 2035. The U.S. currently consumes some 20 million barrels of oil per day, relying on imported oil for 12 million barrels.

Using a biomass feedstock, the report concluded that CTL fuels can emit fewer greenhouse gas life-cycle emissions than conventional gasoline, with further reductions possible by capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions.

To help expedite domestic CTL production the report calls on the federal government to partner with industry to launch an “aggressive program” to build three to five commercial scale CTL demonstration plants.

More information on CTL fuels is available at www.futurecoalfuels.org.