Trends in carbon and hydrocarbon resources

While the conventional and non-conventional oil reserves are growing as growing is the oil production, the growing reserves of natural gas and the huge coal reserves make attractive the production of synthetic transportation fuels having properties similar to gasoline, diesel or jet fuels from the coal or gas feed stock. The paper discusses production and reserves of oil, gas and coal and their potentials as a source of power, heat and fuels for at least a century from now. In addition to the Fischer- Tropsch suite of chemical reactions, methanol synthesis and other paths are worth consideration to produce fuels from coal and natural gas. The integration of the fuel production with power generation and waste heat recovery and the valorization of by-products are key factors for better economic, environmental and energy costs.